MOUNTAINEERING ART 




Harold Raebarn 
THE SEA OP ICE AND THE Git ANDES JORASSES. 



MOUNTAINEERING 
ART 



BY 

HAROLD RAEBURN 



WITH DIAGRAMS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



NEW YORK 

FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



Gr* x ° 



d» 






vtj? 



First published in 1Q20 



(All Rights Reserved) 



TO 

W. N. L. 

CLIMBING colleague 

IN THE SOLUTION OF SOME SEVERE PROBLEMS 

OF 

MOUNTAEsEEELNTG AET 



INTRODUCTION 

Mountaixeekixg is the art of getting up and down 
mountains. The master of the art is he who can 
make his ascents in good style, with ease to himself, 
and with safety to his companions. The whole art of 
mountaineering is one not easy of acquirement, or to 
be mastered in one or two seasons. It must always 
be the outcome of long practical experience, united to 
natural aptitude. The art cannot be properly acquired 
from the pages of a book. Precept is nothing without 
practice ; the sole superiority, in most cases, of the 
professional guide is constant practice. The best 
method for a novice to learn is to watch an adept at 
work. Nevertheless, a great deal may be learned about 
equipment and technique from the printed page and 
the illustration. In this volume an endeavour has 
been made, to trace and indicate the broad principles 
of climbing and mountaineering, from " bouldering " 
to the conquest of the highest summits of the earth. 

The book is the outcome of more than twenty years' 
experience as a climbing leader in many parts of the 
Asio-European continent, and on almost every kind 
of rock, snow, and ice formation. In preparation for 
it, almost every published work on climbing and 
mountaineering, in English, and in the principal 
continental languages, has been consulted. If the 
notes and advice contained in my book are found of 
assistance in the equipment of the ideal mountaineer, 
the safe one, the author's aim will be fulfilled. 

I wish here to express my thanks for the assistance 
received in acquiring the information contained in the 



viii INTRODUCTION 

following pages. These friends, to whom I am indebted, 
are too numerous to mention by name. They are, 
everyone who has ever climbed with me. I must, 
however, mention the five literary sources from which 
greatest assistance has been derived. These are, in the 
first place, the article " Snowcraft in Scotland," by 
W. W. Naismith, in the Scottish Mountaineering Club 
Journal for January 1893, the Badminton volume on 
Mountaineering , edited by C. T. Dent, 1892, Mountain- 
eering, by Claude Wilson, 1893, the article " Technique " 
by M. Maurice Paillon in the Manuel D'Atynnism^SOA, 
and Die Gefahren der Alpen by Dr. Emil Zsigmondy, 
1885. 

For kind assistance with the illustrations, my thanks 
are due to Messrs. J. R. Young, Eric Greenwood, 
R. Adam, A. R. Thomson, A. E. Robertson, and 
to Miss Ruth Raeburn for photographs, and to Mr. 
Shirley B. Ralston for the line drawings. 

Messrs. Short & Mason, Walthamstow, London 
have kindly supplied blocks of the compass and aneroid 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction ...... vii 

SECTION I 
MOUNTAINEERING ART 

CHAPTER 

I. Historical . . . . . 3 

II. Equipment . . . . . .12 

SECTION II 
BRITISH MOUNTAINEERING 

III. EOCK- CLIMBING 49 

IV. A British Rock- climb . . .57 
V. Snow- climbing in Britain. . . 67 

VI. A British Snow- climb . . .79 

SECTION III 

ALPINE MOUNTAINEERING 

VII. Centres ; Guide-Books ; Hotels ; 

Guides ; Porters ; Huts . . 89 
VIII. An Alpine Expedition . .100 



x CONTENTS 

SECTION IV 
FOR THE LADY MOUNTAINEER 

CHAPTER PAGE 

IX. Climbing 119 

X. Dress. By Ruth Raeburn . .127 

SECTION V 
GENERAL PRINCIPLES 

XI. Ethics and Rules. With some general 

considerations . . . . .133 

XII. How to use the Ice-axe, Crampons, 

and Rope ..... 153 

XIII. Some Technicalities . . . .174 

XIV. Food, Drink, Health, and Medical . 222 
XV. Exploration 235 

Envoi 260 

A Short List of Books .... 262 

Glossary . . . . . . . 264 

Index 269 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



The Sea oe Ice and the Grandes Joeasses (Harold 
Raeburn) 

Nails .... 

Crampon 

Ice-axe and Hood 

Lantern 

Calibrating Disc 

Aneroid and Compass 

Clinometer 

Avalanche in the Eoceies. Limestone. 

Leeeoy (J. JR. Young) 
Climbing Cracks, Cornish Granite (Eric 

wood) ...... 

Torrloon Sandstone. Sltlyen 
(J. R. Young) 



Frontispiece 

PAGE 

17 

20 
23 

38 
39 
40 

41 



facing 



Mount 

facing 
Green- 
facing 
The Grey Castle 
. facing 



A Gritstone Table (A. R. Thomson) . ,, 

Millstone Geit. A Chimney (A. R. Thomson) ,, 

FlNGER-AND-TOE TRAVERSE. TlJEA (R. Adam) . „ 

Back-and-knee ; Resting (Ruth Raeburn) . ,, 
A Smooth Slab : the Limit of Adhesion (R. 

Adam) ...... facing 

Nevis, from Carn Mor Dearg. April (J. R. 

Young) ...... facing 

The Scottish Alps in Spring (J. R. Young) . ,, 

A Snowscape. Glissading . 

A Standing Glissade . 

A Sitting Glissade 

Ascending Hard Snow 

Descending Hard Snow 



49 
52 

52 

54 
57 
59 
59 

64 

70 
70 
72 
72 

80 
80 



xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

A British Cornice. " Will it go ? " (J. R. Young) 

facing 85 

A British Cornice. "Gone I" (J. R. Young) „ 85 

A Hut Interior (Harold Raeburn) . „ 98 

Crevasse, Geant Glacier (Eric Greenwood) ,, 104 
Working through an Ice-fall (Eric Greenwood) 

facing 104 
The Rothhorn. Testing a Cornice (Eric Green- 
wood) facing 111 

Bergschrund. Grand Paradis (Eric Greenwood) 

facing 111 

Summit of the Disgrazia (Eric Greenwood) „ 112 
Pitons . . . . . . . .113 

Mist on a Glacier. "'Is it Lifting?" (Harold 

Raeburn) facing 114 

On the Glacier de la Meije. Steep Ice (Harold 

Raeburn) facing 114 

Ladies' Climbing Costume . . . „ 127 

Bowline Knot ......,, 165 

Bowline on a Bight . . . . „ 165 

Whipping ........ 165 

Middleman and Harness Knot . . facing 167 

Various Knots . . . . . „ 169 

Below the S.W. Buttress of the Schreckhorn. 

Looking after the Rope (Eric Greenwood) facing 170 

Central Couloir, Lui (A. E. Robertson) . ,, 170 

A Steep Angle. Dolerite (J. R. Young) . „ 181 

A Slabby Pitch. Basalt (R. Adam) . „ 181 

Descending a Chimney. Basalt (R. Adam) . ,, 183 
Traverse, Side-hold Adhesion. Basalt (R. Adam) 

facing 184 

A Vertical Pose. Basalt (R. Adam) ,, 189 

Cornices on Nuamkuam (Harold Raeburn) ., 235 

Bergschrund of Saramag „ ,, 235 
Ice-tunnel in Nuamkuam Glacier (Harold Raeburn) 

facing 235 
Lowest Ice -fall of the Tsaya Glacier (Harold 

Raeburn) ..... facing 235 



SECTION I 
MOUNTAINEERING ART 



CHAPTER I 

HISTORICAL 

The mountains, like the oceans, have always been the 
home of the marvellous and the terrible from the 
earliest dawn of history. Man, in the main, was, and 
still is, an inhabitant of the flat, and fat, places of the 
earth. The mountains, with their mysterious, inacces- 
sible white pinnacles, behind which rose and set the sun, 
were the regions where he could hardly help placing 
the homes of his earliest gods. These were the powers 
of Nature made manifest. We can trace this idea in 
all the earliest religions, and in the more primitive 
regions, and amongst the more primitive peoples, 
this idea still prevails. 

To the foot of the greatest mountain on the globe, 
Chomokankar (Everest), come every year crowds of 
Tibetan worshippers. The second world-peak, Kang- 
chenjunga, 1 is similarly resorted to by Sikkim pilgrims. 

The greatest mountain on the North American 
continent, Denali, 2 means, The Great One. Its former 
Russian name, Bolshoi Gora, is a translation of the 
native name. The beautiful isolated snow cone of 
Tacoma, 3 which rises above the waters of Puget Sound, 
has been described in a finely illustrated volume as, 
The Mountain that was God. 

The Japanese, an idealistic as well as a practical 

1 K2 is probably lower. See Burrard and Hayden, A Sketch of 
the Geography and Geology of the Himalaya Mountains (Calcutta, 
1908). 

2 Mount McKinley. 

3 Mount Rainier. 

3 



4 HISTORICAL 

people, give a prominent place to the respect and 
worship of mountain nature and mountain gods. The 
great volcanic cone of Fuji San is yearly ascended by 
upwards of 15,000 pilgrim climbers. 

In the Himalayas almost every commanding summit 
at the head of each great river is held in sanctity by 
the peoples of that valley or draws its worshippers 
from even farther off. 

In the Caucasus, also, rises the sacred mountain of 
Mquinvari, the Kasbek 1 of the Russians, the traditional 
scene of the martyrdom of Prometheus, the human 
hero who first dared to wrest from nature's gods the 
secret of fire. Mquinvari looks southward, over the 
central Colchian depression, to another sacred volcano, 
Ararat, on whose summit rested the Ark, and in whose 
neighbourhood rise the head-waters of the streams 
which watered the Garden of Eden. 

All round the globe we find the mountain worshipped : 
as material objects no doubt in many cases, but under- 
lying this is a notion, often vague perhaps, of spiritual 
forces. In the Alps, also, numerous traces of these 
ideas are to be found. 

These ancient deities were not by any means merely 
terrible, or wholly " adversaries." They were aiders 
and benefactors, as well as rulers and destroyers of 
men. As time passed, these ancient semi-benevolent 
deities were replaced, in the more civilised regions, by 
spirits and demons of malevolent, mischievous nature. 
Belief in these persists long. As recently as 1865, it 
seems certain, that it was rather the guides' fear of the 
demons and geister of the Matterhorn, than inability 
to climb it, which prevented its conquest for so long. 

The horror and disgust with regard to mountains 
which for a time, about one hundred and fifty years 
ago, was so prominent a feature in contemporary 
literature, was the outcome of the almost total ignor- 
ance of the poets and writers of the flat lands of England, 
France, and Central Europe on the subject. Nor can 

1 Kasbek was a native chief in modern times. 



ORIGIN OF MOUNTAIN TRAVEL 5 

we, considering the want of travel facilities in those 
days, so very much blame them. 1 

The pilgrims undoubtedly benefited very much in 
health from their ascents into the keener, purer air of 
the great mountains. Good spirits banished the bad, 
High spirits took the place of low. For many modern 
medical materialists it would appear that the microbe 
has taken the place of the goblins dreaded of old. In the 
old folk- tales, or "fairy stories," far more " scientific " 
— that means of knowledge — than much of the so-called 
science of the modern pseudo-scientific quack, the evil 
spirit had no power whatever over the really good. 
No more have the microbes over the really healthy. 
We are all prone to err, however, and require the help 
of the beneficent fairies of the high peaks. 

After a period in the heights we feel, as Mr. C. E. 
Mathews has put it, renewed in health and youth, 
cleansed from the mud and debris of the turbulent 
waters of life. In the mountains we seek conditions 
which shall be as different as possible from those 
prevailing in the " Cities of the Plain." 

The origin of mountain snow-pass travel dates back 
to long before the beginning of history. These passes 
would be traversed for trade, migration, and war. 
Dr. Coolidge, in his book, The Alps in Nature and 
History, has expressed the opinion as regards many of 
the Alpine passes first " discovered " by early members 
of the Alpine Club, that these had been in use hundreds 
of years previously. Mr. Douglas Freshfield, in his 
great work on the Exploration of the Caucasus, has 
given a list of glacier pasess known to the natives at 
the end of last century. Well-known historic passes, 
from 18,000 to 20,000 feet high, are to be found in the 
Himalayas. Anyone who has studied the subject, 
must be disposed to agree with Dr. Coolidge. 

The first recorded ascent of an Alpine snow-peak is 
given by Dr. Coolidge as that of the Roche Melon 

1 Thomas Gray was a praiseworthy exception. 



6 HISTORICAL 

(11,600 ft.), near Mont Cenis, in 1358. This was done 
apparently in fulfilment of a vow. 

The first rock-peak given is that of the Mont 
Aiguille, near Grenoble, in 1492. This ascent was made 
by one Beaupre, by the order of Charles VIII of France. 
This was rather in the nature of engineering than 
real mountain-climbing, and could hardly be described 
as a sporting effort. 

Far different is it with the climb of King Olaf 
Trygvasson, more than 500 years earlier, up the rock- 
peak of Hornelen, on the coast of Norway, at the 
entrance to the Nord Fjord. The climb is described 
in the Heimskringla (about a.d. 1000), Olaf Trygvas- 
son's saga : " King Olaf was of all men told, of the 
most of prowess in Norway. How he went up the 
Smalserhorn [Hornelen] and made fast his shield to 
the topmost of the peak." 

It appears that two of his " court-men " had 
wagered each other they could climb the peak. One 
soon turned back. The other, who had evidently not 
studied climbing technique, got himself stuck. Olaf 
was appealed to for help. He at once went up, rescued 
the man, climbed alone to the top, with complete 
disregard of pitons, crampons, ropes, guides, ladders, 
and iron chains, and returned in safety with his prob- 
ably brave and athletic, but wholly incompetent 
" court-man." 

Olaf left his shield on the top, just as some Alpine 
club pioneers 1,000 years later, left their axes on a first 
conquered peak, as a proof and a challenge. 

An enterprising walk of another king, Peter III of 
Aragon, was that to the top of the Canigou, in or about 
1275. 

That King Olaf 's climb is a fact, and not a legend, I 
certainly quite believe. He was a born mountaineer, 
as well as seaman, and had the quick brain, and the 
close correlation of hand, foot, and eye, necessary for 
real eminence in the climbing art. It is related of him 
in the Sagas that he walked round his longship on the 



DE SAUSSURE 7 

oars of the rowers, while she was in motion, throwing 
up and catching three short swords as he walked. 

Switzerland is naturally the first country where we 
find the cult of mountam-climbing for its own sake 
beginning to develop and to be expressed in literature. 
There was quite an extensive development in this 
direction in the middle of the sixteenth century. 
Conrad Gesner and Simler are the best known of these 
early mountaineers. Wars, and the general misery 
caused by them, intervened, and the ideas of Scheuchzer 
(1702 — 1711), are a retrogression on those of his com- 
patriots 150 years earlier. 

In 1741 two Englishmen, Windham and Pococke, 
visited Chamonix and the Montanvert, and " The 
Englishman's Stone " is still to be seen above the Mer 
de Glace. 

It is to De Saussure, however, that we must ascribe 
the origin and development of the new profession of 
mountain-guide. De Saussure was a native of Geneva, 
and a member of the British Royal Society. He made 
his first visit to Chamonix in 1768. 

He offered large inducements to the hunters, crystal- 
gatherers, and porters of the village, for the discovery 
of a way to the summit of Mont Blanc. The first 
party to gain it was of two, Michel Balmat, with 
Paccard, the village doctor, in 1786. De Saussure was 
himself conducted to the summit, along with a small 
army of guides, in 1787. 

The Ortler, in the Eastern Alps, fell in 1800. 

When the great war closed by the final defeat of 
Napoleon in 1815, travel on the Continent, and moun- 
tain exploration generally, became more possible, but 
for forty years proceeded very slowly. Its development 
during the last forty years has been on an enormously 
enlarged scale, and the literature of the subject has 
increased in even greater proportion. When the devas- 
tating effect of the colossal world struggle, now happily 
closed, shall have somewhat passed away there will no 
doubt be a still further development. 



8 HISTORICAL 

The first club for the climbing and exploration of 
mountains was founded in London in 1857, under the 
title of the Alpine Club. The Swiss and Italian clubs 
followed in 1863. In 1864 the Austrian was founded, 
and in 1869 the German appeared, these last two 
uniting later under the title of the German-Austrian 
Alpine Club. The French followed in 1874. The 
conquest of the last and most difficult of the great 
peaks of the Alps, La Meije, in Dauphine in 1877, by 
M. Boileau de Castelnau, with the Dauphine guides, 
the Gaspards, pere et fils, after the mountain had been 
besieged for years by the best Alpine explorers of 
Europe, aided by the leading Swiss and Savoyard 
guides, was a splendid opening and encouragement for 
the new club. 

Since the last-mentioned date the cult of mountain- 
climbing has become world-wide. There is not a 
country, hardly a district, or even city, within reach of 
mountains, which has not a special club of its own. 
The followers of the Alpine Club may now be numbered 
by hundreds, and the members of these clubs by the 
hundred thousand. I can here but mention a few of 
these clubs : The Alpine, and the Crimean-Caucasian 
clubs of Russia, the Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch, 
Belgian, and Spanish ; the newly founded Alpine 
Club of Japan ; the Scottish Mountaineering Club, 
founded as long ago as 1889 ; the numerous clubs of 
Canada and of the United States ; the New Zealand 
Club ; the Mountain Club of South Africa. 

Besides these national clubs, there are very many 
local clubs. For some of these a very high standard of 
mountaineering ability is required. In Britain alone 
there are no fewer than twenty clubs concerned in 
mountaineering and climbing. 

Last, but not least, this century has seen the founding 
of two exclusively feminine mountaineering clubs ; 
the Ladies' Alpine Club, in London in 1907, and the 
Ladies' Scottish Climbing Club in Edinburgh in 1908. 

Perhaps one of the most important effects these 



GUIDELESS CLIMBING 9 

clubs are having, and are likely to have, is the drawing 
together by mutual interests and sympathies in a 
common object, of widely sundered peoples. 1 



Guideless Climbing 

I have not devoted a chapter to this, as in effect 
guideless - climbing does not exist, at any rate not for 
long. The party which starts for the high snows, 
without being under the direction of one or two mem- 
bers, be they professional or amateur, who have some 
knowledge of guiding, is exceedingly likely to illustrate 
the parable of the " the blind leading the blind." 

By guideless, however, is usually understood, without 
the assistance of professional guides. 

At a comparatively early stage of its existence the 
Alpine Club was induced, perhaps by the occurrence 
of some accidents, perhaps by the publication of a 
book on guideless climbing, perhaps by a " middle-aged 
feeling " on the part of some of its then leading mem- 
bers, to put a ban upon guideless climbing. The ban 
was afterwards explained as a modified one, but un- 
doubtedly the feeling against guideless climbing, 
persisted for quite a long time. 

I cannot help thinking that those members of the 
Alpine Club responsible for this attitude, however high 
and admirable might have been their motives, displayed 
a great lack both of wisdom and foresight. 

Guideless climbing was an inevitable development 
of the sport ; by banning or ignoring it they merely 
took up the proverbially futile and foolish attitude of 
Mrs. Partington and her mop. 

What was wanted was not a condemnation of what, 
after all, was a perfectly natural development, but a 
guiding and controlling of it. Had they considered the 
sea analogy, this would have kept them right. As 

1 As Robert Louis Stevenson says in An Inland Voyage, " What 
religion, after all, unites people so closely as common sport ? " 



10 HISTORICAL 

yachtsmen, would they have banned the men who 
preferred to learn how to steer and sail their own 
yachts ? After all, the numbers of such " Corinthians " ] 
will always be too limited. 

The official feeling, at any rate, being thus against 
amateur climbers who preferred to do their own steer- 
ing, had the unfortunate effect of forcing some of the 
best and most enterprising of British mountaineers to 
keep their doings semi- secret, or even entirely unknown. 
It is only in the last few years that we have been made 
acquainted, through the researches of Captain J. P. 
Farrar, with the fine guideless climbing done in the 
60's of last century, by the Messrs. Parker, and in the 
70's by Mr. J. A. Stogdon and others. 

Even as early as 1856 Mont Blanc had been as- 
cended by a party of amateurs, and by a partially 
new route. 2 

It was perhaps the successful ascent, only the fourth, 
of that extremely difficult mountain, La Meije in 
Dauphine, in 1879, by the Messrs. Pilkington and Mr. 
F. Gardiner, which most largely contributed to the 
breaking down of the British prejudice against guide- 
less climbing. Messrs. Pilkington and Hulton also 
ascended the Disgrazia " By a new Route and without 
Guides " a few years later. 

In the 90's the brilliant exploits of Messrs. Mummery, 
Collie, Hastings, and Slingsby, mainly abroad, and of 
Collier, Solly, Haskett Smith, and Jones, mainly at 
home, showed that British enterprise was neither 
middle-aged nor decadent. 

Most of these climbers showed, by their subsequent 
exploring successes on new mountains, that they were, 
both as mountaineers and climbers, not merely the 
equals, but much the superiors, of the best Swiss 
guides. In the Alps, also, another quartet, Messrs. 
Bradby, Wicks, Wills, and Wilson, proved that the 
reputedly hardest and most dangerous climbs in Europe 

1 " Corinthian ! a lad of mettle, a good boy " {1 Henry IV.). 

2 Where there'' a a Will there's a Way (Hudson and Kennedy). 



GUIDELESS CLIMBING 11 

were well within the powers of an experienced, united 
party of amateurs. Most of the prejudice and argu- 
ments against guideless climbing, which belonged to 
a century and conditions no longer existing, have now 
passed away. 



CHAPTER II 

EQUIPMENT 

Mountaineering used to be considered a rich man's 
sport. So it is, no doubt, if one goes to the Alps, 
engages a couple of guides for two months, and puts 
up at the most expensive hotels. The actual equip- 
ment, however, is perhaps less costly than that re- 
quired for any other outdoor sport. For this country 
in summer -only a pair of nailed boots and a rope are 
required. In winter climbing at home, or for Alpine 
work, an ice-axe must be added. The clothing equip- 
ment is precisely similar to what any sensible person 
would wear on a walking tour, with the addition of 
special light garments for bad weather. Mountaineer- 
ing is the art of ascending and descending mountains. 
This is done, even when the angle may approach eighty 
degrees, mainly by means of the feet. Mountaineering 
is walking in excelsis ; therefore, the most important 
articles of equipment are — 

Boots 
Two serious errors are still too often made in the 
design of the climbing-boot. It is far too heavy, and 
it has projecting welts. In my opinion, the boots, 
besides being moderate in weight, ought not to have 
soles which project at all beyond the edges of the feet 
which are contained in them. Here I am going directly 
contrary to what has been laid down by the authori- 
ties in the past. I feel bound to give my reasons. If 
we look at the foot of a climbing animal, chamois, 
bouquetin, or klipspringer — the familiar goat will do — 
12 



BOOTS 13 

we see that its hoofs are small, narrow, and sharp-edged. 
It does not wear the wide welts patronised by the elk 
or reindeer. The sole advantage possessed by the 
wide-welted boot is the greater bearing surface it 
presents for walking on soft or crusted snow, and this 
advantage is counterbalanced by the difficulty of 
withdrawal, and by the projecting edges catching 
in long grass, heather, or snow. The wide welts of 
the elk or moose, and of the reindeer, fold up on with- 
drawal from snow or bog. On rocks which are at all 
" difficult," 2 the smaller the boots the greater is the 
choice of footholds. It may often be observed that 
ladies and children may be more at ease on steep rocks 
with small footholds than the big, powerful man with 
his heavy and clumsy Alpine boots. It is mechanically 
obvious that if the holding edge of the boot is outside 
the edge of the foot, a very greatly increased strain 
must be put upon the foot, ankle, and leg muscles in 
order to retain the grip on small holds. In practice 
this strain and difficulty is still further increased by 
the fact that, though when new the soles of wide- welted 
boots may be flat, after having been wet and used for 
traversing, the edges invariably turn up to some extent. 
On steep grass, and on ice, the wide welt is also at a 
great disadvantage, and on the latter, of course, the 
labour of making the steps is proportionate to the size 
of the boots to be placed in them. It has been stated 
that very heavy boots, with projecting welts, are 
necessary in order to protect the feet from injury by 
rocks and scree. This is a fallacy, however. Far 
more important is the correct placing of the feet, and 
this is naturally greatly facilitated by the wearing of 
boots of moderate weight, without the clumsy, pro- 
jecting welt. An argument of some force in favour 
of wide welts is that thereby the boot is prevented 
from twisting over sideways by use. This twisting 
over, however, will not happen if the boots have broad, 
low heels. 

1 See p. 50. 



14 EQUIPMENT 

As regards weight, it is often not realised what a 
handicap heavy footgear is. A calculation shows that, 
given a difference of two pounds between the boots of 
two climbers, A and B, making the ascent of Nevis 
from Fort William, the heavier shod drags off the ground 
more than nine tons more than the lighter. The dis- 
tance is seven miles, and the height more than 4,400 
feet. In the case of Mont Blanc from Chamonix, the 
difference will come to nearly twenty-six tons. 

Climbing-boots should, therefore, be moderate in 
weight, with welts the same width as the foot. The 
soles should be hard and stiff, the uppers rather thin 
and soft. If they are strong enough to last a couple of 
seasons' hard use, it is as much as one can reasonably 
expect. After that they will want re-nailing, and that 
means re-soling. Look with suspicion upon the climber 
who says he wears the same pair of boots without 
re- soling for three or four years. It will probably be 
found that his climbing is not of much account, or he 
is wearing boots which have badly worn and blunted 
nails, with worn-out and nail- sick soles, a worse climb- 
ing crime, if he proposes to join your party, than if he 
were to wander up the Weisshorn alone. There is no 
use asking for " waterproof " boots ; you will not get 
them. I have yet to learn that a waterproof boot, 
except one made of rubber, exists. Partial water- 
proofing is best done by the wearer giving the boots 
dressings with some thick oil ; collan is very good, so is 
odourless castor. Vaseline melted and rubbed in while 
the boot is warm is excellent. All oils and greases 
work out in time and must be renewed, but there is 
no use over-oiling. Animal fats have an objectionable 
smell, and their use is to be avoided, as they decompose 
readily, and rot the leather and stitching. 

It is a very good system, on a long climbing holiday, 
to use two pairs of boots. This tends both to ease the 
feet and to make both pairs of boots last longer. Light 
lasts for the boots not in use, are well worth taking ; 
these conduce to the welfare of both feet and boots. 



BOOTS 15 

Xew boots should never be taken out for the first 
time on a long, hard expedition. These should first be 
worn on a short, easy walk, preferably a wet one, in 
order to let them get the set of the feet. After this, 
they should be slowly and carefully dried, re-oiled and 
again worn a short time. Hurried drying near a fire is 
death to boots. I have seen a new pair drop to pieces 
on a climb through such maltreatment at an hotel. 

Climbing-boots should not be high in the ankle, and 
a great improvement is having the tops finished off by 
a strip of felt about one inch deep. This allows of 
closer fitting round the ankle without risk of chafing. 
The tongue should be sewn right up, and the tab should 
be outside, and very strong. The best system of 
fastening, in my opinion, is half by lacing and half by 
hooks. The boots are then much easier to deal with, 
by cold fingers, in the dark, or when covered with ice 
and snow. All three of these conditions may occur at 
the same time. The objection that the hooks cut the 
puttees may be met by not wearing puttees, or by 
buying new ones when they are cut. Good strong 
laces of woven material are, in my opinion, preferable 
to those made of leather. The latter seem generally, 
to be made of refuse hide, and are very variable in 
quality. They also come untied much more readily. 
This may occasionally furnish a convenient excuse for 
stopping on a long, hot grind up an easy slope, but is not 
an advantage at an awkward place on a steep rock-face. 

Kletterscht^ee, Scarpetti, Espadrilles, 
Alpargatas 

On the limestone rocks of the Dolomites, and also in 
the Pyrenees, nailed boots cannot be used owing to the 
hardness and slipperiness of the rocks. Nails are 
never safe on limestone, or in fact on any hard rocks of 
a slabby nature, which are also very steep and holdless. 
Kletterschuhe or Scarpetti, are soft felt or rope-soled 
canvas boots, not shoes, as often mistranslated. Those 



16 EQUIPMENT 

with felt soles are the best. On very difficult, pure 
rock climbs, whether at home or abroad, they are of 
great advantage, and are also, of course, extremely 
light and comfortable. On ice, snow, or very wet 
rocks they are not at all safe. 

Rubber Shoes 
These have often been employed in climbing of a 
difficult nature, both at home and abroad. They are 
delightful to climb in on short, dry rock-climbs. For 
real mountaineering they are rarely worth their weight 
in the sack. Wet, of course, renders them far from 
safe. For any special bit of difficult rock met with in 
a mountain ascent, the boots may be removed, and the 
difficulty overcome on stocking soles. The only 
climbing surface better than this is furnished by the 
naked skin. It should be noted, as will be illustrated 
in the chapter on British Rock-climbing, that 'if socks 
are worn below the stockings, they must first be re- 
moved, and the stockings replaced. Double foot- 
coverings are very dangerous to climb in on account of 
the slipping between the two surfaces. 

Nails 

As boots are the most essential part of the climbers' 
equipment, so the nailing of the boots is the matter 
of supreme importance with regard to them. 

The best system of nailing is by no means settled ; 
new designs of nails and their arrangement are con- 
stantly being tried. The two best-known systems may 
be called the " continuous " and " separate " Swiss 
or " fly- wing " nail systems. 

For ordinary hill walking, or even for fairly difficult 
rock climbing, the ordinary soft iron square British 
tackets are quite efficient. These grip, except upon 
the smallest edge-holds, rather better than the Swiss 
nails, and are of course lighter. They must be inserted 
close to the edge of the sole £ or -I of an inch apart. 



NAILS 



17 



They may be placed in threes, in rows, or irregularly 
in the centre ; the pattern seems immaterial so long as 
too large vacant spaces are not left. Their great 
disadvantage is their liability to get kicked out. The 
boots must be gone over, and lost nails replaced after 
every climb. (Fig. 1.) 

On the Swiss " continuous " system the fly- wing 
nails are inserted with the wings overlapping, right 
round the edges of the boot-soles and heels, including 
the front edges of the latter. Properly driven in, and 
in suitable hard leather, non-" waterproof " soles, these 
nails will not come out, but remain firm till worn out. 
(Fig. 2.) The centre of the sole can be filled in with 
smaller nails with irregular roundish heads (Fig. 3), or 
with soft iron square tackets, disposed in groups, rows, 
or irregularly. A modification of some advantage, is 
to have spaced nails of somewhat larger size in the 
heels. 



Fig. 2. 



Fig. 4. 



Fig. 6. 




Fig. 5. 



Fig. 3. 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 7. 



Fig. 8. 



The " spaced " Swiss nails have long shafts which 
can be driven obliquely through the edges of the soles, 
and clamped round. This enables them to stay in 
when isolated. An advantage of these nails is that, 

( x ) This is a bad form. 

2 



18 EQUIPMENT 

as fewer are required, some saving of weight is effected. 
They also give a somewhat better grip on grass, snow, 
rock, or ice, when somewhat worn, than do the con- 
tinuous, and they are nowadays rather more popular. 
One disadvantage they have, is that their employment 
necessitates the wearing of somewhat wider welted 
boots than may be worn with the continuous nails. 
Another is, that though a lost nail may be replaced if 
continuous, a spaced nail generally brings a piece of 
the boot-sole with it. There is also a temptation, with 
this system of nailing, to defer the renailing of a boot 
too long, as this involves the resoling of the boots in 
most cases. (Fig. 4.) 

Besides these more usual nailing systems, there are 
some where "built-up" nails — that is, nails consisting 
of more than one piece, are used. Two of these may 
be mentioned, the "Tricouni" and the "UHU." 
Opinions seem to vary greatly as regards the advantages 
of the Tricouni. Some mountaineers are in favour of 
them, but the majority of British climbers seem to 
consider that their disadvantages considerably out- 
weigh any good points they may possess. I have no 
practical experience of them myself. Those boots 
nailed with them which I have examined, appear to 
have the chief defect of the wide welt boot in an inverse 
sense ; the wide- welted boot has the holding edge 
outside the edge of the foot, the Tricouni nailed boots 
I have seen have had this holding edge inside the 
foot-edge. Both these systems tend towards insecur- 
ity, but the strain is much less with the Tricouni. 
(Fig. 5.) 

The UHU was for a time rather popular with some 
continental climbers. It appears to me to be exceed- 
ingly clumsy and far too large. 

" Star " nails are sometimes used for the centres of 
the soles and heel. These are circular discs of steel 
with serrated edges. They are secured by means of 
a screw which passes through a hole in their centre. 
In my opinion these nails are bad, as they are only safe 



CRAMPONS 19 

when quite new. As they are made of hard steel and 
the teeth are small, these soon get blunted, and slip on 
smooth, hard rocks. Even worse, after having been 
worn a short time, the discs become loose, and revolve 
freely on their screws. The screws may be tightened, 
but the remedy is only very temporary. (Fig. 6.) 

" Ice-screws." These are square screws with four 
sharp points. In an emergency they may be occasion- 
ally of service. If they are to be used dining an 
expedition, it is better to bore holes for their reception 
previously, packing the holes with paper, or, better, 
string, until required to insert the screws. If the 
screws are afterwards taken out the holes should be 
carefully repacked again. Ice-screws are none too 
good for the boots. They are, however, much less 
harmful than Mummery spikes. (Fig. 7.) 

" Mummery Spikes." These are now very seldom 
employed. They spell utter ruination to the boot ; in 
fact, their screws would go completely through the 
soles of a properly built mountaineering boot. One or 
two inserted in the heel, before the descent of not very 
steep ice-slopes, may occasionally be of some service, 
but for regular ice work they have been completely 
superseded by crampons. (Fig. 8.) 

Crampoxs 

This consists of a metal framework, which ought to 
be of steel, but frequently is not. It is hinged under 
the instep, furnished with eight or ten spikes round the 
edges, and clamps on to the boot-sole. We might 
perhaps anglicise the name to " clampons." We 
cannot call them climbing-irons, as that refers to the 
instrument employed in ascending trees and telegraph- 
poles. 

The crampons are secured by a strap, preferably of 
hemp, which passes through rings attached to the 
framework, is crossed over the front of the foot, and 
over the instep, and firmly binds the steel framework 



20 EQUIPMENT 

to the boots. Many of the crampons sold in Switzer- 
land are useless and dangerous for climbing. The 
worst type is the single-piece four-spike crampon for 
fixing under the instep. This is only of service on ice 
or hard snow of very easy angle. The usual six-spike 
hinged crampon is not much better, and when made of 
soft welded iron, as it often is, will be tolerably sure to 
break if real hard work is required of it. Good crampons 
should be made of just two or three pieces of solid 
mild steel. They should not be welded anywhere, and 
the spikes should not be riveted in. The spikes 
ought not to be fewer than eight or ten, should be 




Crampon. 

sharp, not too thick, and not less than one and a half 
inches long. The main point to watch about a crampon, 
is to see that the spikes are, in number and position, 
sufficient to prevent the boot-edges from touching the 
ice except at really steep angles, when of course steps 
must then be cut with the axe. As with boots, the 
lighter the crampons consistent with strength the better. 
Very good crampons can be bought in Switzerland to 
weigh not more than about two to two and a half pounds. 
Naturally a tall, heavy man requires strong, heavy 
crampons, and it is a great advantage to have the 
crampons fitted to the boots by the maker of the 
former. Though the action in use is so different as 
regards skates and crampons, badly fitting crampons 
are quite as objectionable to the climber, as badly 



THE ICE-AXE 21 

fitting skates to the skater. Formerly, many methods, 
mostly clumsy and bad. were employed in making 
temporary connections between boots and skates. 
Nowadays, everyone with any pretensions to be a 
skater at all, uses special boots to which the skate- 
blades are permanently screwed, thus doing away 
with the weighty, weak, steel frame of the patent 
skate, and the heavy and clumsy frame and cold- 
inducing straps of the wooden-bodied skate. It seems 
to me that this method is the ideal for crampons also, 
if these are to be worn on the whole climb, whether ice 
or rock, as seems often the case in recent years. Xo 
one as yet. however, appears to have brought out a 
special crampon boot to which spikes are permanently 
attached. The whole question of the pros and cons of 
crampons in general mountaineering will be fully 
discussed in the chapter on ; " How to use the Ice-axe. 
Rope, and Crampons." Crampons are best carried, 
when not in use, in a special tin folding case to be 
obtained from the Swiss makers of crampons. 



The Ice-axe 

The Ice-axe is a two-purpose, or compromise instru- 
ment ; therefore it cannot be made perfect for both. 
In its modern form it is the result of gradual evolution 
during a long series of years. The process of this 
evolution can be easily followed in the photographs 
and drawings of ice-axes in the hands of guides and 
climbers, in the Alpine Journals and books of climbing 
adventure. In the earlier of these, it was generally 
only the guides who carried axes : the amateurs were 
content with the more modest alpenstock, and many 
Alpine " Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers " were conquered 
in this fashion. 

The ice-axe is evolved from the original alpenstock or 
baton, a long ironshod pole employed by the hunters 



22 EQUIPMENT 

of alpine game, not only in the Alps but in the Caucasus 
and elsewhere. 

I have seen a " Tur " x hunter's pole in the Caucasus 
Mountains, furnished with the very efficient spike 
formed by an old Russian bayonet. 

For work in ice-falls and on the steeper slopes, the 
baton was sometimes supplemented by a short axe 
carried in the belt. 2 This no doubt was occasionally 
lost. Some innovator then hit upon the idea of fixing 
the hatchet to the top of the baton. Thus was formed 
a kind of halberd. Ice-axes of this description, some 
two metres in length, are still shown in Chamonix. The 
halberd was gradually reduced in weight and length, 
the hatchet blade was turned adzewise, and the back 
of the hatchet prolonged out to a pick, for the purpose 
of digging into the ice. The pick then developed in 
weight and length, and became the real working part 
of the axe. I think the limit has now been reached, in 
the best modern axes, to this process of shaft-shortening. 
Indeed, in my opinion, the extra short pattern of axe, 
evolved by a well-known amateur, has only succeeded 
in becoming quite useless as an alpenstock, while of 
very small service as a hatchet. 

The long shaft has many advantages, for glissading, 
for traversing, for ascent and descent at moderate 
angles, and for cutting downhill, and we cannot reduce 
the shaft below a certain length without seriously 
impairing the total value of our combination tool. 

The dimensions of the modern ice-axe here illustrated 
will* be found of good all-round utility for the average 
sized climber, say 1'75 metres (5 ft. 9 in.) and say 70 
kilos (about eleven stones). 

The shaft should be of tough, even-grained, well- 
seasoned ash, or hickory, and is preferably hewn, not 
sawn, from the log. The grain should not " run out " 
diagonally. In cross-section it ought to be well oval 
near the head, and the oval should persist, though less 
flat, to where it enters the spike-ferrule. 

1 Capra Caucasica. 2 See cover of Alpine Club Journal. 



THE ICE-AXE 



23 



Cirt 



It will probably be found better to choose an axe to 
suit from a stock than to order one specially made from 
dimensions. If the 
axe is meant for step- 
cutting and hard use 
generally, the shaft 
should be strong 
enough to bear the 
wielder' s whole 
weight kneeling on 
its centre, when the 
axe is laid with only 
the head and metal 
spike resting on two 
chairs. If the seller 
will not allow this 
test, refuse the axe. 
The head should not 
be made of iron or 
welded in any way. 
It should consist of 
a single piece of the 
best steel. In temper 
it should not be too 
hard ; if soft enough 
to be nicked by an 
ordinary pocket- 
knife it will be about 
right. Teeth are 
sometimes cut on the 
underside of the 
pick. These at any 
rate do no harm, 
and I hare known a 
time when they 
proved of service. A 
roughened under-surface to the adze blade, though as 
one authority sarcastically observes, " Perhaps useful 
to strike matches on ; " is a nuisance in sticky snow 




24 EQUIPMENT 

conditions. A high polish renders the axe easier to 
keep from rusting ; perhaps a " rustless " surface 
would be most convenient 

The head is secured to the shaft by a long screw. 
This passes through the head and runs several inches 
up the shaft. In addition, steel lugs run in slight 
recesses cut in the shaft sides. The lugs are "connected 
with each other by three countersunk copper rivets 
passing through the shaft. The length of these steel 
lugs is important ; if too short, the axe-head is apt to 
be broken off when the weapon is wielded by powerful 
arms. This was a weak point with the old axes. The 
lugs should not be less than seven inches long. The 
spike should be of the same material as the head. It is 
best made of one piece, with a smoothly sloping 
shoulder, and with a hexagonal or octagonal point, or 
like the pick. Both head and spike ought to be covered, 
when not in use, by leather hoods. 

No bulb, leather collar, rubber tube, or anything 
whatever should mar the symmetry of the shaft. The 
first two excrescences prevent the proper exercise of 
one of the axe-shaft's functions, that of acting as a 
probe for testing the snow's condition near cornices and 
crevasses, and on bridges. Also the free handling of 
the axe in cutting steps. The last is simply a piece of 
futility for a working axe. In reality, it is desirable 
that a certain amount of slipperiness should be pos- 
sessed by an axe for real use, otherwise it is difficult to 
make the fine adjustments necessary when cutting 
from a fixed position, such as an ice-step. 

Ropes 

It would be quite impossible to carry a rope which 
would never break under any conditions. We there- 
fore should be careful to have one of convenient 
diameter and length, of strength sufficient to support 
any probable strain or shock, and well tested and guar- 
anteed by a responsible maker. 



ROPES 25 

Numerous trials and testings of climbing-ropes have 
been carried out from time to time, both in this country 
and abroad, from 1864 onwards. In these it has 
always appeared that the best and most trustworthy 
rope is the English Alpine Club rope. This is made of 
Manila hemp. It is distinguished by having a red 
thread in each of its three strands. Latterly another 
rope, also a London-made rope, has proved itself of 
great excellence under engineering tests. This rope 
is made of flax. 

After considerable practical experience, under very 
varied climbing conditions, of both these best kinds of 
rope, I may here summarise my conclusions. 

(1) When both ropes are new, the flax rope is slightly 
lighter, is softer and more pleasant to handle. 

(2) It does not stand hard wear so well : i.e. it rubs 
and looks old sooner. 

(3) When well stretched and used a good deal in wet 
snow, it does not seem to recover its resiliency so well 
as the hemp rope. 

(4) The three strands of which the flax rope is twisted, 
probably from their smoother fibre, do not seem to 
cling so well together as the three strands of the Manila. 
The flax rope becomes untwisted more readily. This 
may lead to a stretching of one strand, and thus to a 
weakening of the rope. 

For real hard work I prefer the Manila rope ; but, as 
both ropes possess a quite adequate margin of strength 
when new, and climbing-ropes should not be used when 
at all worn or old, there is little to choose between the 
two kinds. 

Both these English-made ropes are laid ropes — that 
is, the strands of which they are composed are twisted 
or " layed," and not plaited. It should be noted that 
the Manila forms a right-hand helix — that is, it is laid 
from left to right; the flax is the reverse. It is, there- 
fore, inadvisable to mix the ropes. 

A number of foreign-made climbing-ropes are formed 
of plaited, not twisted strands. These ropes are supple, 



26 EQUIPMENT 

pleasant to handle, and do not kink. Plaiting is, 
however, a wrong system of construction for a climbing- 
rope. These plaited ropes compare very badly with 
laid ropes under strains, especially under sudden strains. 
The strands then cut each other and the rope bursts. 
The main safeguard of a climbing-rope is its resiliency, 
or " life," as a sailor would say. A rope is worn out 
or " dead " if its resiliency has been lost. The plaited 
rope's chief fault, apart from poor material, is low 
resiliency. 

Some climbers kill their new ropes for what they 
consider the crime of kinking, by overstretching them ; 
such as tying them tightly between two trees, or posts, 
and leaving them out all night in the rain. Stretching 
a new rope should always be done with moderation, and 
by man-power, not with the enormous force of water- 
swelled fibres. 

In practice I have never known a sound English 
Alpine rope to break with the weight of a man. On the 
only occasion on which I used a plaited rope, the ascent 
of the South Aiguille D'Arves in Dauphine, one of the 
party fell off the bulge of the " Mauvais Pas " (there 
was no fixed rope and no shoulder was used). 
Though he only slipped down a few feet, and I was 
easily able to sustain the jerk, it nevertheless burst his 
Austrian woven rope about half-way through. 

The occurrence of a number of cases in which these 
woven ropes, Austrian, Bavarian, or Swiss, had failed to 
stop comparatively slight falls, led the Swiss Alpine 
Club, some years ago, to make extensive tests of differ- 
ent kinds of ropes. Some interesting points were 
brought out. The marked inferiority of the plaited 
ropes, even when thicker and heavier, in sustaining 
sudden strains, was, as might be expected, fully demon- 
strated. It had been suggested that a frozen rope 
might be more liable to break than an unfrozen, but 
the trials at Zurich did not confirm this. 

Both British ropes weigh roughly one pound per 
20 feet, and measure 11 or 12 millimetres in diameter, 



ROPES 27 

about ljin. in circumference. " Alpine Line," half 
the weight of this, may be carried as a reserve. 
It is useful for hauling up baggage, as a safety 
cord for securing the last man on the descent, and is 
quite strong enough to support the weight of two men 
at once, if no jerk occurs. 

Silk ropes have occasionally been used by climbing 
parties. The advantages claimed for them are light- 
ness and strength in excess of the ordinary rope. 
There is, however, silk, and silk. Some of these silk 
ropes in tests made on the Continent, have come out 
surprisingly badly ; probably owing to the prohibitive 
cost of silk of first-class quality, these had been made of 
low-grade windings. 

The few silk ropes which I have handled and used, 
have seemed unpleasantly thin and hard. They cer- 
tainly appear to last well. Their price, however, puts 
them out of the reach of the average mountaineer. 

Cotton has been suggested as a material for climbing- 
ropes. I am not aware that it has ever been used for 
these. The thick, fixed ropes placed by the guides to 
lighten their labour and shorten the journey, on certain 
Alpine peaks, are often made of cotton, probably for 
the sake of cheapness. 

The solitary fixed rope which remained on the Meije 
in 1919, at the Breche Zsigmondy, was of cotton. It 
had been there from before the war at least, and was 
obviously absolument pourrie. 

Cotton absorbs water too easily, becomes too heavy 
and sodden, and is too soft and easily rubbed for a 
carried rope. 

A suggestion was made to me by an engineering friend 
to try a rope with a flexible steel wire centre. Apart 
from weight, however, this would do away with the 
laid rope's chief advantage, resiliency. 

A point often totally ignored by engineer testers of 
ropes, who use a weight, a stone, or a bag of sand, to 
represent the body of the climber, is that a man's 
body has no resemblance whatever to any of these 



28 EQUIPMENT 

substances. A jerk which would leave the molecular 
structure of a lump of granite quite unmoved would 
crush a man's ribs flat, or fatally disarrange his vitals. 
The moral of this is, that, given a reasonable margin of 
strength, there is no use carrying a rope of weight in 
excess of this. 



Clothing 

Clothing should be all wool, both under and over. 
In former times far too much heavy clothing used to 
be worn by Alpine climbers. Now the tendency among 
rock-climbers, at home at any rate, is to wear too little. 
A happy medium is the best, but it is generally better 
to wear a moderate amount of clothing, and supple- 
ment it by carrying light extras in the shape of 
Shetlands, than to overheat oneself by too thick and 
heavy garments on the lower, hotter slopes. Coats of 
gaberdine, dexter, or similar closely woven and partially 
waterproof material, are often worn nowadays. They 
are light, wind-resisting, and have the conspicuous 
merit of not accumulating snow, to afterwards melt and 
soak in, as rough woollen coats do. Coats made of 
rough loose wool, such as Harris tweed or Irish frieze, 
are quite useless for the mountaineer. These tear 
easily on rocks, collect snow in large quantities, and 
are not much more comfortable in a cold wind than a 
fishing net would be. Good sound tweed, of close 
texture and medium weight, seems the best all round. 
The armholes of the coat ought to be made specially 
loose, but the Norfolk jacket style has no advantages 
over an ordinary loose high-buttoning coat, and a belt 
is simply a nuisance to a climber. The coat, waistcoat, 
and the waistband of the knickers should be lined 
with the thinnest possible flannel. Some climbers 
have great faith in a wool cholera-belt, but if all wool 
undergarments are worn, and the tailor is not permitted 
to line the knickers with cotten or linen, the cholera- 
belt should not be required. Cotton is only for cloth- 



CLOTHING 29 

ing for hard, sweaty work, when it can be worn in one 
thickness. Cotton fibres absorb, wool fibres do not, 
and this explains the reason of the horrible clammy 
feeling of cold, damp cotton. 

Knickerbockers are almost always worn when climb- 
ing, by amateurs. A few of these, and many of the 
older guides, wear ordinary long trousers. The amateur 
usually in this case winds puttees round his legs, the 
guide puts on a pair of gaiters when soft snow is to be 
traversed. The riding breeches style of knicker- 
bocker is to be condemned, and the boxcloth continua- 
tions are restrictive and unnecessary. A simple cloth 
strap, with a plain, not toothed, buckle is the best style 
of fastening below the knee, or a lacing may be used. 
The traditional conventional " Swiss," really Tirolese 
guide, is always represented as clad in gaily ornamented 
shorts, with a considerable expanse of bare thigh and 
leg. Like the kilts of the Scottish Highlander, shorts 
are ideal for hill- walking. Both styles of garments are 
utterly unsuitable for real climbing. Knickers made 
of velveteen, corduroy, or canvas materials, are fre- 
quently worn by foreign, and sometimes by British, 
mountaineers. These are thick, heavy, and stiff, and, 
when wet, take a long time to dry. For the ordinary 
standard Alpine ascents, such as the Matterhorn, 
Weisshorn, Rothhorn, Dent Blanche, where the rock- 
climbing, in good condition, is from a British standard 
easy, flannel makes a delightfully light and comfortable 
style of garments. I have worn flannel undamaged on 
many long Alpine traverses, but I do not consider it 
thick enough, or strong enough, for the colder, rougher 
work on British crags. 

The knickers may be supported either by braces, or 
by belt or buckling. Those climbers who prefer the 
utmost freedom of every muscle, which is the writer's 
position, will use braces. The other method also causes 
the shirt to ruck up in a disagreeable manner on long, 
hard rock-climbs. 

The shirt should be of good medium-weight flannel, 



30 EQUIPMENT 

or of silk ; detachable collars of flannel, or silk, are most 
convenient. The undershirt and pants are best in 
combination form. It is better to wear two thin 
undergarments than to carry thick, heavy outer 
clothing. As still air is the best heat insulator, the 
double under garments keep one cooler in heat, and 
warmer in cold, than a greater weight of material 
in single form. 

Pockets should be numerous and roomy. I usually 
have about twenty. All should be made to button. 
Two large pockets inside the skirt, usually called hare, 
or poacher's pockets, are often useful. The pockets 
should be of strong linen material, and the knicker 
pockets should also be covered on the side next the 
body with the lightest flannel material. Mackintosh 
lining for the pockets, sometimes recommended, is a 
great mistake. It causes the pockets to rather collect 
and hold moisture, and soon perishes. Anything it is 
specially desired to keep dry should be wrapped in 
oilskin or gold-beater's skin, and fastened with a 
rubber band. 

Do not have the coat treated with an alum solution 
for the purpose of making it " waterproof." The 
process makes the garment heavy and stiff ; it does not 
make it waterproof. In any case, all waterproof close 
coverings, from hat to boots, are unsuited for the hard 
exercise of climbing. 



Stockings, Socks, Puttees, Anklets, Gloves 

Double stockings, or socks under stockings, should 
always be worn. In addition to being a much better 
cold or heat insulating method than a single pair of 
extra thick stockings, this arrangement almost entirely 
does away with blisters. To be most effective, the 
under sock should be closely fitting, and of thin, smooth, 
natural wool, or of silk. The stockings can be of 
ordinary make and weight. The main point is to 



PUTTEES, ANKLETS, AND GLOVES 31 

ensure that any rubbing which may take place occurs 
between the two wool surfaces. 

Puttees are now very generally worn in the Alps, 
and have to a great extent ousted the gaiters formerly 
the rule. These bandages are justly not in much 
favour with home rock-climbers, and even for snow 
work a modified short puttee, coming up so far as just 
below the calf, is to be preferred. Puttees, unless very 
carefully put on, are apt to be either too tight or too 
loose. In the former case they tend to stop the circula- 
tion, and interfere with the action of the leg and ankle 
muscles ; they tend to cause, not prevent frost-bite, and 
generally to interfere with the proper use of the feet 
and legs. If too slack — that is, slack enough to obviate 
these evil effects — then they will not stay up during a 
long climb. Puttees in fact, in my opinion, are quite 
unsuited to the European leg, with its generally well- 
developed calf muscles. 

I observed some Engadine guides, in 1910, using the 
modified half puttees. They had evidently already 
found out the unsuitability, for climbing, of the full- 
length bandage. An imitation puttee made of knitted 
wool, really a kind of footless stocking, is now to be 
obtained. This gives the neat effect of the puttee, 
without its evil constrictive tendencies. 

Anklets of knitted wool, of cloth, of canvas such as 
those used by shooters, can often be of service. Those 
made of knitted wool do not last long. The simplest, 
and one of the most effective methods of preventing 
twigs, small stones, or snow, from getting in at the top 
of the boots is to use an old sock with the foot cut off 
as an anklet. Boot-tops of felt also help. 

Gloves. Though less important than boots, gloves 
suitable for various conditions should be used to cover 
and protect the hands. It is obvious that gloves add 
greatly to the safety of climbing. It is much easier to 
feel for holds with warm and comfortable fingers, than 
to fumble for them with half -frozen, cut, or scratched 
hands. For rocks in summer conditions, thin leather 



32 EQUIPMENT 

or kid gloves may be used. Old dancing-gloves can 
prove of great service. These should, of course, not be 
too tight. For snow work of any difficulty, especially 
if on snow-covered rocks, two pairs of wool gloves must 
be taken. One pair may be provided with separate 
fingers, for use on fairly difficult rock. The other 
should be of the pod shape. These latter are to be kept 
in the pocket, and only donned on halts. By this 
means frost-bite is prevented, and the fingers kept at 
their fullest efficiency. 

Ladies are sometimes warned against climbing, on 
account of the damage it is supposed to do to the hands. 
Abrasion of the skin is little likely to occur if gloves are 
used. At first there is a tendency to feel uncertain of 
the holds when wearing gloves, and, where any difficulty 
is met with, they can be removed till it is overcome. 
Practice will soon diminish the number of the 
" difficult " places where they have to be removed. 
In wet weather leather gloves are apt to be slippery on 
rocks. Wool gloves hold well under wet conditions on 
rocks, and give a splendid grip on hard snow. It is 
quite easy to cut ice-steps and do ordinary climbing, 
after some little practice, in the pod gloves. Water- 
proof rubber gloves have sometimes been used on snow- 
climbs. Loose rubber gloves, to put over dry wool 
gloves at a halt in bad weather, might prove serviceable. 

Hat, Cap, Helmet, Scarf, Goggles, Mask 

The best all-round hat for mountaineering is the soft 
felt hat called the Alpine. The brim should be wide ; 
not only for the purpose of protecting the face from the 
powerful rays of the sun, but, even more important, 
the back of the neck as well. 

The brim must not be too stiff, or the hat will blow 
off in a wind. On the other hand, it must not be too 
soft. If too soft, it blows into the eyes. In wet 
weather the top of the hat is pushed up and the brim 
turned down. Water is thus prevented from soaking 



HATS,1SCARVES, AND GOGGLES 33 

through to the head, or running down the neck. In 
crossing a snow-covered glacier on a blazing hot 
afternoon, a most effective brain protector is provided 
by means of a lump of snow carried in the pushed-in 
top of the Alpine hat. The hat may be secured, if 
desired, by a hat-guard ; but this is rarely required, and 
is apt to be a nuisance on steep rocks. 

Caps are often worn by British rock-climbers. 
Though too easily blown off, they do fairly well in 
dry weather. They soon get soaked in wet weather, 
and then permit the rain to run very freely down 
the neck. They are quite unsuitable for Alpine work. 

Helmet. Every climber in bad or doubtful weather, 
or where there is the least chance of being benighted, 
should carry in his sack a woollen helmet. Those made 
of Shetland wool are the best. These are light, can 
easily go into the pocket, and give an enormous amount 
of heat for weight. Heavy leather or rubber helmets, 
or oilskin sou'westers, are quite unsuited for such 
work as mountaineering. 

Scarf. This is also best of light fine Shetland wool. 
It may be six feet long and ten inches wide, and yet go 
into very small bulk and weigh only a few ounces. It 
can be worn anywhere, and in the form of a night-cap, 
helmet, comforter, extra jersey, waist-belt or cummer- 
bund, and either under or over the clothes, and may 
also be made into the warmest of sleeping-socks for the 
feet. 

Goggles. These are tinted spectacles used to cut 
off the actinic sun-rays and thus prevent injury to the 
eyes, while the mountaineer is crossing fields of snow. 
Too dark a tint is a mistake. It is better to use goggles 
which interfere as little as possible with the natural 
appearance of the surroundings. The tint called 
London Smoke is suitable. Goggles may be had at 
prices from one franc to one guinea. The simplest is 
really the best and most convenient. These are light 
and not easily broken, and two pairs should always be 
taken. One pair can be carried on the hat secured by 

3 



34 EQUIPMENT 

ordinary hooks. Another pair may be carried in the 
pocket in a small tin box. The rim of the goggles, 
where they touch the skin, should be lined with velvet, 
and the connecting strap over the nose is also best 
made of, or covered with, this material. 

Masks used often to be worn as a protection to the 
face on glaciers. They were made of linen or cotton, 
with holes cut for the eyes. They give the wearer a 
most weird and sinister appearance, and are rarely seen 
nowadays. 

Extra and Overall Garments 

A cloak or coat of any kind is inadmissible for actual 
climbing. A light mackintosh cape, or zephyr oilskin, 
may be used to turn a shower on the way up to the 
hut. The wettermantel of loden cloth, so often observed 
on the Continent, is the badge of the " valley-pounder," 
not of the mountaineer. For British winter climbing 
however, where snow is so often mixed with rain, these 
garments are quite useful. They turn an enormous 
amount of wet, and the skirts are light and easily turned 
up under the rope. Loose capes are simply a nuisance, 
and may easily prove dangerous in climbing. 

Soft, light, air-holding Shetland jerseys are by far 
the most valuable form of extra clothing. Two of 
them should be in the sack of every climber who starts 
for a long, hard, Alpine climb, with any possible chance 
of being benighted. They are, of course, worn under 
the coat. 

Face Protection 

Everyone knows the painful effects of the sun-rays 
reflected off water. When these rays, striking through 
the thin, clear atmosphere of glacier heights upon snow, 
are reflected on to unprotected skin, the effect may be 
of almost total destruction. In bad cases of glacier 
sunburn the face swells, great blisters form, which 
later burst and discharge great quantities of fluid. 



FACE PROTECTION 35 

The outer skin peels off, and the process of healing is 
long and painful. This result used to be combated by 
wearing masks, — a stufivand cumbersome method, — or 
by rubbing the face with an emollient. Simple oils, 
vaseline, or lanoline, are not sufficient, but there is no 
doubt that soot or burnt cork, on a basis of grease, 
forms an efficient safeguard as long as it remains. 

The cause of the death of the skin tissues, is through 
the chemical action of the ultra-violet rays, or actinic 
light, and it should be noted that mist does not stop 
these chemical rays. One can get badly burnt in 
crossing a freshly snowed glacier, even in a thick mist. 
A preparation which I have found to be an absolute 
specific is ; ' Dr. Sechehaye' s Pomade." Since using 
this I have never had the slightest degree of burning. 
The sole disadvantage of the " Sechehaye : ' is the 
somewhat bilious tint it imparts to the complexion. I 
would suggest, for the benefit of those who find this 
effect distressing, that they might add a small quantity 
of rouge to the pomade. I have seen the rouge-paint 
of the stage used by a party of Italian lady- climbers, 
but it is of too melting a nature, as even a Sherlock 
Holmes could not have failed to track them by means 
of ;; The Red Drops in the Snow." Most emollients are, 
like the rouge-paint, too easily melted. The Sechehaye 
is of a much harder nature. To ensure its easy removal 
it is necessary to rub the face with a small quantity of 
oil or butter. When putting it on, special attention 
should be paid to the points of the nose and chin, the 
cheek bones, the under sides of the nostrils, and round 
the lips. It is sold in convenient-sized compressible 
tubes, and does not require to be thickly spread. 

Rucksack 

This is a square or oblong loose bag. with draw-string 
to close the mouth, and comes originally from the 
Tirol. It is a great improvement upon the stiff knap- 
sack from which the early climbers suffered, and has 



36 EQUIPMENT 

completely ousted it for mountaineering. The knap- 
sack was galling to the back, restrictive to the shoulders, 
and carried the load far too high up, thereby interfering 
with balance. The rucksack, when properly shaped, 
packed, and worn, reduces the strain and disadvantage 
of a load to a minimum. If improperly arranged, 
most of its advantages are lost, and it approximates 
to the evil tendencies of the knapsack. It is surprising 
how often, both in this country and abroad, one sees 
this happen. The following points with regard to the 
rucksack and its proper use may be of service. 

(1) No canes or holders should be fitted between the 
sack and the back. 

Reason. One of the main points about the rucksack 
is that it fits closely to the back, and moves with the 
body, interfering little with the balance. 

(2) It should be worn as low down as possible, right 
in the small of the back, to bring the weight, and 
therefore the centre of gravity, of the climber low. 

(3) Heavy articles should be placed in the bottom of 
the sack, for the above reason. 

(4) In order to make it fit closely, and thus prevent 
side-swing, and also for the wearer's comfort, soft 
articles should be packed where the sack is in contact 
with the wearer's back. 

(5) Rucksacks ought never to be tightly packed; 
their size ought always to be ample for the bulk carried. 
Tight packing raises the centre of gravity, and causes 
the sack to roll on the back, thus spoiling the balance. 

The chief fault, from a climber's point of view, with 
the ordinary rucksack, more especially the British-made 
sacks, is their excessive weight. They are usually of 
thick, strong canvas, and lined throughout with the 
usual alleged " waterproof " material. If this is torn 
out and thrown away, the sack will be lighter. British- 
made sacks certainly last well. I have a sack specially 
made to my order a quarter of a century ago. It has 
travelled many thousands of miles, by rail and steamer, 
by motor and diligence, by horse, mule, donkey, and 



RUCKSACK AND LANTERN 37 

porter-back, as well as several thousand miles also on 
the carrier of a motor-cycle, a more severe trial than 
any, and is still quite serviceable ; but I never carry it 
myself, as, though not large, it weighs several pounds. 
In my opinion, the climbing-sack ought to be as simple 
and light as possible. The one I now carry, of my own 
design, is an absolutely plain square bag of tough, light, 
semi-waterproof cloth, without any metal fastenings 
whatever. Anything it is specially desired to keep 
dry is placed in a separate jaconet, or oil-silk bag 
inside. I do not believe in a water-proof lining for a 
sack. When these do not speedily rot and perish 
themselves, they cause the rapid rotting of the sacks 
by preventing them from drying properly after being 
wet. 

Pockets inside are a nuisance, and tend to interfere 
with the proper stowage of the weight. Outside 
pockets are best reserved for porters and low-level sacks. 
Foreign-made rucksacks are lighter and cheaper than 
British. They are, as a rule, of inferior quality. Ruck- 
sacks with narrow leather shoulder-straps should be 
avoided. Straps of broad webbing are much better, 
and are much less affected by rain. 

It is not easy to pack a rucksack to find things readily. 
A system of small oil-silk or jaconet bags may be 
adopted. These may be of different colours, or marked 
outside with their contents, to assist the search for 
any special object. If the situation is convenient for 
such, a proceeding, turning out the sack's contents and 
repacking will probably save time, and will be better 
for one's after comfort, and the balance of the rest of 
the load. 

Lantern 

The best Alpine lantern is the square folding Italian 
lantern called the " Excelsior Lux." Those made of 
tin. though rather heavier, are better and give less 
trouble than the aluminium, 



38 



EQUIPMENT 



The small three-cornered Swiss folding lanterns are 
not good. The insufficient air-space inside causes the 
candle to melt and waste rapidly, unless a very small 
candle is used, when the lantern becomes inefficient. 
The holes for the admission of air can be partly closed 
in sJ high wind ; if dry, by pieces of stamp-paper or 
insulating tape ; if wet, a handkerchief may be sacrificed 
to save the candle from wasting or blowing out. The 
hardest obtainable candles should be used. Ordinary 
waxcandles last a very short time, and will give annoy- 
ance by dropping through the holder. 





lfg>r»0. 



Weicfkt 7 en.. 

ZOO <jraJ*}YT,es 

Lantern — " Excelsior Lux " 



Cookers 

The most convenient and portable cooker for ordinary 
Alpine climbing, where only a small amount of cooking 
has to be done, is the nested aluminium stove, burning 
alcohol vaporised and mixed with air. It is provided 
with a wind-screen and stand, which fits inside the 
cooking-pot, and the lid can be inverted and used as a 
fry-pan. Owing to the screen, the stove will burn in 
almost any wind ? and for this reason is more efficient 



COOKERS 39 

for out-doors cooking, and is of course much lighter 
than the cheaper and more powerful paraffin stove. 
The best of these is the Primus, the most powerful, 
economical stove for tent, hut, or small yacht cookery- 
yet devised. The smallest form, the " Pocket," will 
heat up a tent, or a small yacht, in a few minutes. The 
cost of running is, of course, only a fraction of that of 
the alcohol stove. Its considerable weight is against 
it for Alpine work. 




Calibrating Disc (see p. 239) 

Aneroid 
This, though the better makes are rather heavy, is a 
most useful item of general mountaineering equipment. 
For exploring work it is, of course, essential. It gives 
approximate results in many cases, where weather 
or lack of time prevent more accurate methods of 
measuring heights from being employed. On known 
mountains it may easily save a night out, perhaps life 
itself, used in conjunction with map and compass, by 
fixing in mist, storm, or darkness the exact position the 
party is in. On known heights the aneroid can be 
read with great accuracy, if, during the climb, it is 
checked against a map-height on the journey, and the 
variation from the triangulated height allowed for 
during the subsequent readings. On several mountains 



40 



EQUIPMENT 



of 14,000 feet, triangulated, but not ascended before, 
I have seen it give readings only differing from the 
triangulated heights by ten to fifty feet. 

Clinometer 

The circular form is useful for giving an approximate 
idea of comparative heights. For measuring snow 
slopes, the handiest and most easily read instrument 
is in the form of a flat, oblong piece of wood, four or 
five inches long, by two to two and a half inches broad. 




Clinometer 

In this a semi-circular recess is cut out, covered by a 
piece of clear celluloid. Inside the recess, a metal 
pointer swings by gravity, and indicates the angle of 
inclination on a card. 

The fairest way to take the angle of a snow-slope 
would seem to be this. Place the ice-axe straight up 
and down the slope. Push the pick in till the shaft 
just touches the surface from head to spike. Now 
apply the clinometer to the middle of the shaft. If the 
slope is of ice, the axe must be laid sideways, and held 
in position. Of course if the slope is of any length, a 
number of measurements must be taken and an average 
made. A single measurement is very apt to bring out 
a much higher angle than the actual angle of the 
slope. 



COMPASS AND MAPS 41 

Compass 

This is a very necessary part of the equipment of the 
mountaineer. The prismatic form is the best, but it 
is often rather heavy. The prismatic has no advantage 
over a smaller, lighter, ordinary instrument as a guide 
in mist or darkness. The compass, in any case, should 
have a floating dial, 1 and be provided with luminous 
points, so that it can be read in the dark with a fair 
degree of accuracy. Some illustrations of the use of 
the compass will be given in Chapter XII. 

Maps 

All mountaineers will, of course, carry the best maps 
obtainable. These are naturally nearly always the 
Government maps of the various countries concerned. 
Some special climbing maps of certain districts in the 
European Alps have been issued by the various Alpine 
clubs, which are better than the government maps. 
Several extra-European climbing explorers' maps 
are distinctly in advance of anything the Govern- 
ments concerned have hitherto attempted. The Swiss 
Federal map, on the scale of one in 50,000, (a mile to 
the inch, equals one in 63,000 nearly), is by far the finest 
mountain map in the world. 

The French, Austrian, and Italian maps are consider- 
ably inferior. The largest scale general mountain map, 
is the latest Russian survey of the Central Caucasus. 
This was almost completed in 1914. It is on the scale 
of one verst to the inch, one in 42,000. Like most of 
the Alpine frontier maps, this is on the hachure or 
sketch system, and is without contours. It, of course, 
does not possess the beauty and accuracy of the Swiss 
map. The Indian frontier maps are, as regards the 
delineation of the mountains, snow-fields, and glaciers, 
naturally considerably behind the Russian maps of 
the Caucasus. 

t This bars the compass-clinometer, which necessitates a fixed dial. 



42 EQUIPMENT 

The Ordnance Survey maps of the British Islands, on 
the one-inch scale — one in 63,000 — are the best for hill- 
walking. The very large maps, six inches to the mile, 
about one in 10,500, are useful for the examination of 
special small rock areas. The scale is too large for 
them to be of general use. They often give information 
not to be obtained on the smaller scale maps. 

Photographic Equipment 

The camera is not an essential part of mountaineering 
equipment, but it is almost the exception to find a 
climbing party without at least one. This, for the sake 
of lightness and handiness, will be usually a small 
pocket camera of the " press-the-button " type. 

For the purpose of obtaining climbing incidents, 
and topographic notes, these little cameras are invalu- 
able ; for obtaining true pictures of mountains, they 
are almost useless. If, however, a size is carried just 
big enough to make a lantern slide without enlargement 
— 6 x 6 5 centimetres is the smallest — then some part of 
the effect desired may be brought back on the screen. 

Practically all the best views of snow-mountains have 
been, and still are, taken on whole-plate glass, but this 
involves a special train of porters to convey the weighty 
apparatus, and mountaineering in this case must 
be subordinated to photographic requirements. The 
expedition then becomes a photographic one, and not 
a mountaineering. As a keen photographer myself, 
I can sympathise with the photographer and his lost 
opportunities on a climbing trip, but also, as a leader, 
can understand the extra difficulties in the way of 
successful ascents involved by the weights and delays 
of stand-photography. Those who overcome them 
deserve all the more credit. For the average party, 
whether guided or not, the little snapshot camera, to 
which perhaps may be added a light stand, is all that 
the guide will put up with, or time afford. It has 
sometimes been recommended, that a stand should be 



PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT 43 

made of the ice-axe by drilling a hole through the 
adze, to which the camera can be attached by means of 
a screw. This is really useless, unless perhaps on an 
absolutely calm day, and in deep snow. Vibration is 
pretty sure to ruin a time exposure otherwise. 

The stereoscopic camera gives pictures of actual 
angles and incidents of climbing very interesting when 
viewed through the proper instrument. Viewing the 
ordinary print through a reading glass, holding it at 
the same angle as that at which the lens took it, gives, 
with the better class of lenses, almost the same effect as 
the stereoscope. 

Colour photography has hitherto not been much 
resorted to by mountaineers. Certainly splendid effects 
have been obtained in depicting the snows and rocks 
without it, but a very common defect in otherwise good 
snow-mountain scenes arises from the over-correction 
caused by the colour screen. This makes the sky far 
too dark. Colour photography gives here a much more 
natural effect. 

Tor the violent contrasts, and powerfully actinic 
light of the high snows, the use of the colour screen is 
essential. This should, however, not be overdone : 
probably as regards Europe, four or five times will be 
enough. 

It is difficult for the photographer, accustomed to 
ordinary conditions, to realise the enormous reduction 
in the time of exposure necessary on snow at great 
heights. Over-exposure is almost certain unless an 
exposure meter is carried and most carefully consulted. 
Even then a great deal of experience and judgment is 
necessary, as the distance factor is even more important 
than at sea-level. 

Telephotography is exceedingly useful in pioneering 
exploratory work. It also gives much truer pictorial 
effects, in many cases, in views of familiar peaks. It 
requires specially clear atmospheric conditions, and 
is very sensitive to the effects of vibration. 

The kinema panoramic views give by far the most 



44 EQUIPMENT 

realistic idea of glacier heights. Some of these, with 
clouds in motion, are exceedingly beautiful and real. 
Sometimes, from ignorance, or sheer foolery, kinema 
pictures of mountains and of mountaineers, are utterly 
ruined by being put through the lantern at a preposter- 
ous speed. The apparatus is too heavy for the ordinary 
climbing party to handle. 

I give here a number of references to articles written 
by mountain photographers. The study of these may 
prove useful for the climber who wishes to know the 
best instruments to take on the heights, and the best 
ways of dealing with and overcoming the special 
difficulties involved in photographic work on the high 
snows. 

"Notes on Photography in the High Alps" (H. B. George, Alpine 
Journal, iv., p. 217), 1869. 

La Fototopographia (P. Paganini), 1881. 

" Photography in the High Alps " (W. F. Donkin, A.J., xi., p. 63), 
1882. 

" Climbing with a Hand Camera" (W. Leaf, A.J., xv., p. 472), 1891. 

Mountaineering , chapter xv., " Photography " (C. T. Dent), 1892. 

Hints on Snoiv Photography (Mrs. Main), 1895. 

Alpine Photography (T. W. Wall), 1896. 

" Photography in Winter and Summer in the Alps " (Captain Abney, 
A. J., xvi., p. 37), 1893. 

" Alpine Photography " (Captain Abney), 1898. 

Photography in the High Alps (S. Spencer), 1899. 

La Photographie des Mudignes (M. J. Vallot), 1899. 

" Telephotography " (Charles Shea, A. J., xx., p. 393), 1901. 

"Guide de l'Alpiniste Photographe" (M. J. Vallot, Manuel D' Al- 
pinism), 1904. 

" Colour Photography for Mountaineers " (Dr. W. Inglis Clark, 
A.J., xxvi.,p. 1), 1913. 

Smaller Articles and General Remarks 

It is hardly necessary to enter into much detail with 
regard to these. What to take depends very much 
upon the personal tastes and objects of the climber. 
At the end of this volume is given several packing lists 
for consultation. These are for ordinary Alpine ascents, 
and can be added to or deducted from as found suitable. 

Not a bad method of arriving at the minimum, the 



GENERAL REMARKS 45 

best, if enough clothing and food is allowed for, is this. 
Think of everything you could possibly want on a 
climbing expedition, say, of thirty hours. Cut out 
from this all that you think might be fairly easily 
dispensed with. Take with you 50 per cent, of the 
remainder. It is sometimes a relief to get free from 
a whole host of time- wasting and useless knick-knacks, 
such as a razor for instance (?), which civilisation has 
caused us to burden ourselves with. 

It will be found that the weight of small extras, when 
added together, will mount rapidly. This will not 
assist us in doing so. All non-essentials should be as 
simple and light as possible. Replace the bulky, 
heavy drinking-cup of metal by a small, flat, folding 
leather one, the fountain-pen by the pencil-stump. 
Leave cigar-case and cigars at the hotel. Even the 
pipe is none the worse of remaining at the hut. The 
bunch of keys can stay down below also. The silver 
cartwheels of the Latin Union can be exchanged for 
paper. If you are a guideless climber, you will require 
neither corkscrew nor tin-opener. A small, strong 
pocket-knife is more useful, and a fraction of the 
weight, of the huge affair bristling with all kinds of 
useless " tools," including a gigantic hoof-pick for 
horses, such as is sometimes taken. Toilet articles 
are not wanted in a hut ; the less washing at high 
elevations the better. 

Do what you like, you will find, if guideless, that it is 
not easy to cut down the load of each man of a party 
of three below ten pounds. 

A small siren for the Alpine distress signal should 
be taken. 1 

It is often a good plan to take a small folding pocket 
knife and fork, and small metal teaspoon of one's own, 
and even a tin mug ; the last can be thrown away at 
any time. The huts are usually provided with a 
certain amount of iron or enamelled furnishings ; but 
these are seldom clean, and it may save time to be 
i See p. 142. 



46 EQUIPMENT 

partly independent. A few safety-pins, a small piece 
of sticking-plaster, a strip of clean linen for a bandage, 
do not weigh much, nor do a couple of spare laces. It 
is important that everyone carries matches, in a suitable 
water-proof case. These are best of the flamer type. 
Cases have been known of a whole party of four finding 
themselves at tea-time without a single match ; they 
had all thought one of the others would be sure to have 
some. 

Lists should always be written out by one and 
checked by another member. It is surprising how 
easy it is for some small, yet important article to 
conceal itself, and escape being packed. 



SECTION II 
BRITISH MOUNTAINEERING 



47 



CHAPTER III 

EOCK-CLIMBIXG 

In the early days of the Alpine Club the would-be 
mountaineer generally began on snow, and in the 
Alps. Naturally a prejudice is apt to arise in favour 
of the means by which the climber has been first 
introduced to the delights of the sport. Much was 
written in praise of snow. The snow-craftsman, or, 
if one prefers, the icemanship expert, was stated to 
be the real scientific mountaineer ; the rock-climber 
was sometimes termed the "mere gymnast." In 
more modern times the Alpine climber rarely begins 
abroad without some, perhaps considerable, experience 
on home rocks. The tendency is rather to over- 
emphasise the importance of difficult rock-climbing 
ability. The author is not a partisan of rocks, or of 
snow and ice. I think the mountaineer, to be " corn- 
pleat," should be perfectly at home on both. There 
is this to be said about rock-climbing, however. In 
my opinion, to be a real expert rock-climber, on all 
formations, requires more science, practice, and brains 
than is necessary for the less varied and less com- 
plicated structure of frozen water. 

A knowledge of geology is of no small use to all 
climbers, and is absolutely essential to the exploring 
mountaineer. The great difference in the constitution, 
lie, and behaviour of different rock formations will 
soon force itself upon the attention of the climber. 
He soon finds that he can take liberties with certain 
kinds of rocks which it would be criminal folly to 
attempt, if not impossible, with others. Some rocks, 

4 49 



50 ROCK-CLIMBING 

such as the limestones, are never really safe to climb, 
at any rate with nailed boots. Others, like many of 
the granites, will show great smooth, unbroken slabs, 
thoroughly sound and secure, but " difficult " on 
account of scanty or rounded hand and foot holds. 
As a definition of what a climber means by difficult 
and easy rocks, I cannot do better than quote Dr. 
Claude Wilson's Mountaineering (1893) : " Hand- 
holds and foot-holds are spoken of collectively as 
' holds,' and when these are firm and plentiful the 
rocks are said to be ' easy.' On ' difficult ' rocks the 
holds are scanty, or are so small and awkwardly 
situated that it requires considerable skill to make use 
of them." We thus see that mere steepness does not 
necessarily make the climbing difficult, though, of 
course, its moral effect cannot be entirely ignored. 
British rock-climbing, as a sport commonly pursued 
for its own sake, hardly dates back forty years. It has 
been declared " not mountaineering " by some 
Alpine writers. I would prefer to say that it is not 
the whole of mountaineering, but is a very important 
part of it. If combined with practice in winter in hill- 
walking and snow- climbing, such as is described in 
the next chapter, the British-trained mountaineer is 
fully deserving of that title, and need fear no difficulties 
likely to be encountered on any mountain-range in 
the world. He must modify his methods, and expand 
his horizon, on glaciers and the great snow-peaks. He 
has nothing to unlearn. He has been well grounded 
in the art of mountaineering. Alpine mountaineering 
has its origin in the pursuit of the little antelope called 
the chamois, or gems. The original British rock- 
climbers climbed the cliffs of our coasts and islands 
for the purpose of obtaining sea-birds, their eggs, and 
young. They were in the main islanders, and not 
highlanders, though a few in inland localities specialised 
in the destruction of the eyries of the Golden Eagle, 
and of the Erne, 1 or White-tailed Eagle, and in robbing 

1 Norse " orn," Origin of the Iron and Heron Crags in Lakeland. 



CLIMBING IN ST. KILDAS 51 

the Peregrine Falcon of her fierce, and valuable, young 
brood. 1 A good deal of this cliff- climbing has been 
stopped through the operation of the various Wild 
Birds Protection Acts of the last half-century ; in 
many places it is still carried on extensively. The 
St. Kilda group of islets, far out in the Atlantic, off 
the western coast of Scotland, are specially exempted 
from the scope of these Acts. The collection of the 
eggs, and the catching, killing, and salting of the sea- 
birds and their young, form a principal occupation of the 
islanders during the summer months. So important 
is climbing that, up to very recently, the ability to 
make the ascent of a special rock-stack was the test 
of a young man's marriage fitness. 

The St. Kildans always climb barefoot. It is rather 
curious that, in the region of the most highly elaborated 
and difficult rock-climbing in the world, the English 
Lakes, a return is sometimes made, on specially hold- 
less slabby pitches, to the primitive St. Kilda method. 
These islanders use ropes of twisted horse-hair. This 
probably keeps well under damp conditions, and is not 
affected by the fungi which so soon rot vegetable 
fibres. 2 

In the Shetland Islands, where egging is extensively 
carried on, the natives seldom use ropes. They mostly 
climb in stockings, slipping off the soft raw-hide shoes 
called " rivlins," commonly worn. 

On the Yorkshire coast, at Buckton 3 and Bempton, 
where the greatest chalk precipices in Britain frown 
out over the North Sea, the cliffs are regularly worked 
by gangs of hereditary " klimmers." The method 
employed here is, however, not strictly climbing. 
The " klimmer " is lowered from above with a thick 
rope, and sits in canvas breeches. This is a severe 
test of nerve for a novice, as, in order to reach the 
chalk ledges under the boulder clay overhanging cliff- 

1 James IV of Scotland gave £180 for a cast of falcons. 

2 See St. Kilda, by Norman Heathcote. 

3 Buckton Cliff is 800 ft. high. 



52 ROCK-CLIMBING 

top, it is necessary to get a good swing on the rope by 
walking backwards over the edge, and pushing out 
smartly with the feet as the rope is slacked off. 

I do not propose to give an account here of the origin 
and development of British rock-climbing as a sport 
in itself. It is now well established. There are nearly 
twenty British clubs in existence, mainly or largely 
interested in its pursuit, and a number of well- 
conducted periodicals, beautifully illustrated, are 
published by them. A number of volumes on the 
various districts by local experts have also been 
brought out. Reference to these books and periodi- 
cals will be found in the bibliography list at the 
end of this volume. The following short summary 
may be useful to indicate where British rock-climbing 
is to be found, and its probable character in the 
various districts. 

The would-be British rock-climber, who dwells in 
the south and east of the island, is somewhat badly 
off for practice ground. Chalk, except for a short 
distance above sea- level, is everywhere unsound. 
Some scrambling has been done on Beachy Head, and 
in quarries, but is not to be recommended. Devon 
has coast cliffs, mostly of sandstone. Cornwall's 
coasts, and inland " tors," are of granite. These 
give in many places first-rate, but rather difficult, short 
climbs. Limestones, whether in scars or in quarries, 
give climbing in Cheshire, Derbyshire. Lancashire, 
Yorkshire, or elsewhere, which is only slightly less 
bad than the chalks. Derbyshire has a few small 
exposures of better limestone of a Dolomite character. 
Limestone, however, in most cases, is not justifiable 
in nailed boots. In Northumberland, Durham, Lan- 
cashire, Yorkshire, and Derbyshire many isolated 
crags, not of limestone, occur. These are, in the first 
two counties, mostly of volcanic rock ; in the last three, 
of millstone grit. On these, enthusiastic local crags- 
men have worked out many routes, some of very con- 
siderable difficulty. Millstone grit resembles in many 



SCOTTISH CLBIBIXG CENTRES 53 

ways a coarse, inferior granite, and weathers in much 
the same manner. 

Scotland has many, if rather scattered, climbing 
centres. As pointed out by Dr. Wilson in Mountaineer- 
ing, nearly thirty years ago, there is excellent climbing 
to be had within the confines of the Holyrood Park. 
at Edinburgh. The rocks of this ancient volcanic- 
outburst are of basalt and tufa. The former is often 
good, if very steep and inclined to come out in angular 
blocks. The other is generally crumbly and rotten. 
Many similar formations extend in a belt across Mid 
Scotland from sea to sea, from Dunbarton Rock in 
the Clyde estuary, to the Isle of May and the Bass 
Rock, 1 at the mouth of the Firth of Forth. Much 
of the Scottish coastline, from Berwick to John o' 
Groat's, and from the Mull of Galloway to Cape Wrath, 
is precipitous. Innumerable rock-climbing problems, 
on almost every geological formation, abound. The 
interest of the ascent of a sea " stack," savin Shetland, 
is greatly enhanced by the difficulty of timing the 
landing leap from the prow of a Norway " sixern/' 
poised on the summit of a great Atlantic roller. 

In the Southern and Central Highlands there is too 
great a development of mica-schist rocks, with their 
strong tendency to a vegetable covering, to render 
the region of very great interest to the rock-climber 
pure and simple. These mountains, however, hold 
many, if rather recondite problems, and afford splendid 
training in snow and ice mountaineering. In the far 
North- West, the mountains are mainly of Torridon 
Sandstone and Quartzite. The scenery of this forma- 
tion is striking, and splendidly individualistic, but, on 
the whole, the climbing is apt to be somewhat dis- 
appointing. The granite slabs of the Cairngorms, and 
of the island of Arran, give good practice in sound foot- 
work ; a climber trained upon these is much more 
likely to develop into a safe and competent moun- 
taineer, than if he were to confine himself solely to the 

1 Bass = Hollow. A cave passes completely through the island. 



54 ROCK-CLIMBING 

standard " courses " in the English Lakes. Ex- 
ceptionally fine rocks and climbing characterise the 
Nevis and Glencoe districts. The rocks here are 
mostly porphyrytic, geologically speaking, andesite 
lavas, and of extremely good quality. 

Skye is a region by itself : it may be called the 
British rock-climber's paradise. The Black Coolins 
are like no other hills in Britain. For their brothers 
we must cross the North Sea to the Lofoten Islands, 
or to the Jotunheim district of Norway. Like the 
name Skye itself, l many of these Skye hills have names 
of Norse origin. The rock is of gabbro, a much 
younger rock than that which forms the most of Scot- 
land. It is pre-eminently a good rock, and climbing 
can be done on it which would be impossible elsewhere 
in Britain. Even the ridges afford almost everywhere 
real climbing. Few peaks are readily accessible to an 
ordinary hill-walker. Great gaps and pinnacles con- 
stantly occur in and on these ridges, which are com- 
posed almost entirely of bare rock and stones, with 
very little vegetation anywhere. The faces and but- 
tresses, also, are usually steep, bare rock. What makes 
the Coolins somewhat dangerous to the untrained 
climber is 'the fact that nearly every steep face and 
ridge is composed, low down, of a series of huge boiler- 
plate slabs which have been largely deprived of holds 
by the grinding and polishing received in the last ice 
age. The reality of Skye's resemblance to Norway is 
most strongly brought out by a visit to one of the 
lonely upper corries. It seems as though scarce a 
century could have passed since the hanging ice-cliffs 
of the glacier had ceased to poise themselves above the 
scored roches moutonnees of the corrie lip. The small 
dark tarn in the hollow above, might almost still con- 
tain the meltings of the vanished ice. 

1 Skye is Sky-a, the misty isle, a very appropriate name, as her 
high hills catch the first of the moisture -laden Atlantic winds. Sgurr 
nan Gillean looks Gaelic, but is gallicised Norse ; the real meaning 
is Gillskar, or the scar of the gills, thoroughly descriptive. Scafell in 
Cumberland is Skarfell, or the hill of the cliff. 




A GRITSTONE TABLE. 



oil 



ENGLISH AND WELSH CRAGS 55 

All rocks in Skye are, of course, not gabbro. In- 
trusive veins of other rocks, some of "good" others 
of "bad" quality, occur in the gabbro. The Red 
Coolins are of granite. The rocks at the Quiraing and 
the Storr are of a crumbly volcanic rock, of super- 
latively " bad " kind. These rocks are very dangerous. 

Inland Ireland will not attract many rock-climbers, 
and her coasts, though fine, are rather inaccessible. 

It is in Wales, and the English Lake district, that 
most British climbers will get their first introduction 
to the rocks. 

For nearly forty years, the crags which jut from the 
faces of the highest English hills have been examined 
ever more closely for climbs of ever-increasing diffi- 
culty, and the process is still going on. Not even in 
the Dolomites, perhaps only on the climbing grounds 
nearest to Geneva and Vienna, is the standard of 
difficulty so high. It says a great deal for the skill, 
care, and prudence of the modern school of English 
rock-climbers that so few accidents occur here. Wales 
has a somewhat worse reputation. Perhaps, on the 
whole, the Welsh rocks are not so good as the Cumbrian 
and Furnessian, but the too numerous Welsh accidents 
are mainly of other origin. The condition of the rocks, 
and the condition of the climber, are both even more 
important than ordinary difficulty, in judging the 
suitability of a climb, and this must be considered, if 
unjustifiable risks are not to be run. Some of the 
worst of the Welsh accidents can be traced to the fact 
that " men shut up for months in a great city, have 
rushed to its difficult climbs with unbraced muscles 
and unstrung nerves." Disaster, under these condi- 
tions, is invited, and inevitable. British rock-climbers 
should treat the exceptionally severe climbs with as 
much respect, to say the least, as they would accord 
to difficult climbs in the Alps. 

Comparisons, if not always odious, are often invidious, 
and can be made to lie as brazenly as facts by a fanatic. 
or statistics by a politician. Nevertheless, it may be 



56 ROCK-CLIMBING 

of interest, and perhaps useful to some climbers, to 
give here a comparison between a British and Alpine 
rock-climb, of some repute for severity. As the writer 
has led both, and is therefore not biassed in any way, 
I shall take the Kern Knotts Crack on Great Gable, 
and the so-called " Mummery Chimney " on the 
Grepon. Here, I must confess, there is no real com- 
parison. 

The Kern Knotts would be only a small incident in 
the Grepon day. Even to reach the foot of the 
" Mummery Chimney " may take hours of hard 
climbing : I have taken eighty minutes cutting the 
ice off the 150 feet of steep rocks below the foot of the 
chimney. The chimney itself is longer, much harder, 
and very much more sensational than the Crack. 
It is itself merely an incident, doubtfully the hardest, 
in the traverse of the Grepon. The ability to force 
one's way up the Kern Knotts Crack, or similar British 
climblet, does not constitute a man a mountaineer, or 
justify him in leading a party on the great Alpine peaks. 

In the next chapter is given an imaginary account 
of a British rock- climb. 

This has been made to embrace most of the ordinary 
incidents and positions on first-class British climbs. 

General rock-climbing positions and methods are 
also dealt with in the account of an " Alpine Expedi- 
tion," Chapter VIII, and in " Some Technicalities," 
Chapter XIII. 




MILLSTONE GRIT. A CHIMNEY. 



J. R, Thomson. 



[57 



CHAPTER IV 

A BRITISH ROCK-CLIMB 

(See ; " Glossary ") 

Let us suppose the party to consist of three members, 
A, B, C. A is a skilled and experienced leader. B, 
though a novice, is active and athletic, and not troubled 
with nerves. C, like the leader, is also a strong, 
practised climber, though without A's natural and 
acquired abilities. Arrived at the foot of the crags 
where the climb is situated, they proceed to rope up. 

The length of rope employed depends upon the 
character of the climb, and the constitution of the 
party. Twenty- five metres, or eighty feet, will usually 
be sufficient for three. A and C tie on at either end 
with bowline knots ; B is put on the rope, somewhat 
nearer C than A, with a middleman knot. If much 
hauling of him was required, he would find the bowline- 
on-a-bight less painful. 1 The order is thus A, B, C. 

Many continental climbers, and some in this country, 
consider that the order should be A, C, B. On the 
whole, and as a general rule, I do not agree with this. 
For specially difficult climbs (where, by the way, B 
should not be at all) without traverses, always in an 
upward direction, and where the climbing is known to 
be near the limit of A's powers, the order may be A. 
C, B, with some advantage. On the great majority 
of rock-climbs, and always on the great snow-peaks, 
the correct order, in my opinion, is A, B, C ; that is, of 
course, unless A is in constant need of assistance, in 
which case he is obviously unfit for his position. 

1 See Knots, Chapter XII. 



58 A BRITISH ROCK-CLIMB 

The climb is commenced in a " gully," to which a 
steep slope of " scree " leads up. The first obstacle 
consists of a cave "pitch," a black recess, roofed above 
by a projecting " chockstone." On the right the 
gully wall is vertical. It has a few ledges an inch or 
two wide, but too small to stand on at that angle, with- 
out good hand-holds, as it is impossible to balance. 
The left wall at the bottom is over six feet away from 
the right. It overhangs slightly, and gradually 
narrows to about four feet at the chockstone, which is 
about thirty feet above the floor of the cave. B does 
not see how it is possible to get up. A, however, does 
not hesitate. Saying to B, " Watch me, but keep 
under the chockstone for fear of loose stones," he 
proceeds to tackle the pitch. On the minute holds he 
mounts the right wall for about ten feet ; as the holds 
here almost die out, he then throws his left foot across 
to the left wall, which it now just reaches. With a 
thrust from this he is able to reach a hand-hold higher 
up. As the cleft narrows he gets better purchase, and, 
grasping the edge of the chockstone with his hands, 
swings up his legs and disappears. Presently he calls 
down, "Righto, come on, B." B now starts, and, 
coached by C, finds it not so bad after all. As he nears 
the top, flushed by success, he makes a too-eager grab 
for the top of the chockstone, taking the pressure off 
the left foot just a fraction of a second too soon. 
Result, the nails slip, and down he goes, or would do so, 
but for the fact that A, who has been just " feeling " 
him up with the rope, holds tight. B only slips down 
the stretch of the rope. Disliking the position and 
pressure, he seizes the rope in both hands, and proceeds 
to climb up it. In doing this B commits what, in my 
opinion, is one of the worst of the " crimes " of the bad 
climber. He is submitting his leader, not to speak of 
himself, to a wholly unnecessary risk. Few are the 
amateur climbers, and there are even fewer among 
the guides, whose fingers can be trusted to stand such 
a strain for more than a few feet. When a follower is 



A BRITISH R0CK-CLB1B 59 

moving, there should be no slack on the rope between 
him and the man in front. The higher B hauls himself 
the greater the bight or slack formed. Should B's 
fingers slip from wet or ice, or give out from overstrain, 
it is unlikely that A could stand the frightful jerk 
which would ensue. No doubt most athletic men can 
get up a few feet in this fashion ; but it is a very 
different thing ascending a thick dry rope clad in 
gymnasium costume, and climbing the same distance 
up a thin, greasy, wet, or icy, hard climbing rope, clad 
in heavy clothes, in nailed boots, with a loaded ruck- 
sack, and with fingers already tired with hard 
climbing. 

If B cannot climb the pitch unaided, or it is desired 
to save A's strength, there is no objection to using a 
doubled rope, or emergency cord. B pulls up on this, 
while A assists him as much as is required by the waist- 
rope. 

B, however, just manages it, and, puffing and strug- 
gling, hauls himself over the top of the chockstone. He 
has quite forgotten, however, A's warning about loose 
stones. His flounderings disturb a perfect torrent of 
boulders, which bound down the pitch, striking the 
walls with terrifying din. None, fortunately, strike 
the rope, und C, who " has been there before," is well 
out of reach below the chockstone. A remarks to 
the remorseful B, ' ' Take it easy, press down, and the 
stones will never waken." 

C now comes up, B just feeling him on the rope. 
When he is near the top, remembering his own struggle, 
B begins to haul vigorously. At once comes up an in- 
dignant shout from C, " Slack 0." A says, sotto voce 
to B, " Don't haul unless you know it is required, C par- 
ticularly prides himself on neat ' back and foot ' work." 
C, who is a tall man, with long legs, puts both feet 
against the left wall, and hoisting himself up thus, steps 
easily on to the top of the chockstone. 

The moral here is, that meticulous literary descriptions 
of climbs, with every hand-hold labelled, are of verv 



60 A BRITISH ROCK-CLIMB 

slight value. Hardly two men will climb the same 
pitch in exactly the same way. The general methods 
are always the same, but each climber must find out 
for himself, the way of applying them which best suits 
his particular build and capacity. 

Again united, the party proceed towards the next 
difficulty. The intervening part of the gully is at an 
easy angle, with many loose, sharp blocks and several 
low, rotten pitches. The climbers keep close together, 
carrying the shortened rope in coils in their left hands, 
and all moving together. They soon arrive at the 
next pitch. This, A remarks, " is a bit of a ' muffin 
struggle.' " The gully here narrows to a crack, too 
small, it appears to B, to even admit his body. Higher 
up the crack gradually vanishes in an overhanging 
wall. The walls of the crack are quite smooth, and 
the cliffs on each side vertical or overhanging. To B 
the place looks utterly impossible ; but A seems quite 
cheerful. The crack penetrates far into the rock, 
but in its jaws near the outside are caught two boulders 
about eighteen and twenty-four feet respectively above 
the floor. The crack proves much roomier at the 
bottom than it looked, and A here mounts on C's 
shoulders, which C has carefully padded with a scarf 
and two pairs of gloves. A leaves without delay, as he 
knows it is not pleasant to have a nailed comrade on 
one's shoulders even for a few seconds. C assists A 
by supporting his feet, until the leader, puffing and 
struggling, gets out of reach. A's progress is almost 
entirely by scraping the sides of the holdless crack 
with the edges of his boots ; the fact that he is wearing 
narrow boots, with sharp new edge-nails, is of great 
advantage. Rest is taken by inflating the chest and 
stiffening the muscles of the arms. Fortunately the 
ascent is neither very high, nor directly perpendicular, 
but slanting out towards the lower chockstone. After 
some strenuous minutes A reaches this, and mounts to 
its top. He can now reach a hold on the upper chock- 
stone, and a few seconds later is standing on it and 



A BRITISH ROCK-CLIMB 61 

resting. When he is ready B follows, and with the 
good take-off from C, and some slight assistance from 
the rope, is soon on the chockstone beside A. B has 
been wondering how C, who is taller, broader, and 
heavier than either of the others, is going to manage, 
when A shouts down to C, "Rope off ? " and, getting 
for answer " Yes," pulls up the loose end and coils it 
where it will not get foul on the chockstone. He 
explains to B, " We'll pick up C later ; watch me and 
the rope now." A then steps into a crack with his left 
leg. This crack, which runs up the right wall, sloping 
upwards and outwards, was unnoticeable from below. 
It looks horribly dangerous to B, but the leader, with 
one leg inside, the right knee clasping the edge of the 
crack, swarms up somewhat in the manner of climbing 
a sloping tree-trunk. Soon he reaches the edge of the 
wall, crawls round a corner, and disappears. Presently 
his face again shows to the anxiously watching second, 
" Come on " is all he remarks, and B comes on. As 
before, he finds it easier than it looked. He is soon 
beside A, and to his surprise finds they are on a big 
ledge, with grass, and with room to move about. 
After resting a few minutes here, they proceed to pick 
up C. Descending the face some little way by fairly 
easy ledges, they arrive at a grassy corner. Looking 
over, B sees C only some thirty feet below them, stand- 
ing at the bottom of the pitch. The intervening wall is 
A.P., or " Absolutely Perpendicular," and without 
holds. A's remark is, " If you have thews, prepare to 
use them now, as this is a big fish we have to land." 
He tells B to come off the rope, and then throws the 
end down to C, who, wise man, ties on with a bowline 
on a bight. A now digs two holds in the turf for his 
heels, and, passing the rope round the small of his back, 
directs B to sit down in front, and haul in unison with 
him. The hauling is done with the legs rather than 
with the arms. It is at first very hard work, as C can 
give no assistance ; but the third man, nevertheless, 
comes dancing lightly up the face of the rock, like the 



62 A BRITISH ROCK-CLIMB | 

wall-creeper, the butterfly-like bird, the Papillon des 
Roches of the Alps. 

The lift gets easier as C mounts higher ; there are 
some projections here which he can utilise to ease the 
strain both on his haulers and on himself. Had a 
spare rope been carried, this lift would have been much 
easier, as it could have been used as a " stirrup-rope," * 
and C could have got up with very little assistance, by 
bending and straightening the thighs, the others merely 
taking in the slack of each rope alternately. Thus, 
even at ninety degrees, climbing can be done walking. 

After C is up the whole party are quite ready for a 
quarter of an hour's rest. Re-roped as before, they 
then resume the ascent. The descent of A and B is 
first retraced to the top of the groove. Directly above 
this the cliff actually overhangs. Some distance on 
their right appears a steep, broken arete ; to this a flat 
but narrow ledge leads. The wall above the ledge 
appears vertical ; B can see no holds in reach upon it. 
A does not look for any. While B and C look after 
his rope, paying it out carefully, he steps upon the 
ledge and moves slowly and steadily along it, holding 
his head sideways. His hands spread, and his arms 
at full length, make him look almost as if nailed to 
the wall. Presently he gains the arete, mounts 
quickly, and sits astride a small pinnacle. " All 
right," he calls, and B now starts. When A was on 
the ledge B had thought the wall vertical. Xow he 
is sure it is off it — on the wrong side. He says he 
would prefer to kneel; '"All right," says A, "but 
come on." B therefore shuffles across on his knees, 
and feels less off his balance in this position. A, whose 
rope is only slanting slightly above B, is very careful 
not to put the slightest tension upon it during the 
traverse. C carefully pays out his end, seeing that 
no check occurs while it runs out. He has also belayed 
himself to a large spike of rock at the beginning of the 
ledge. Arrived in safety on the other side, B is very 

1 See Chapter XI. 



A BRITISH ROCK-CLIMB 63 

pleased to find good holds on the arete. He soon 
mounts and strides the pinnacle below A. C then 
starts. His height is here against him. and. if it were 
not for the chance that his superior reach just enables 
him to obtain one or two hand-holds quite beyond the 
others' utmost stretch, he would have had to adopt the 
kneeling tactics of B. 

Experience would seem to show that the best all- 
round climber and mountaineer is the somewhat 
lightly built man of medium height. The extra tall 
man has an advantage in certain places, owing to his 
abnormal reach. His height may be a disadvantage 
on others. The very short man. on the other hand, 
may find passages quite out of his power which a 
much inferior climber of normal reach finds quite easy. 
For long, hard, enduring work, preference should rather 
be given to men slightly under than much over middle 
height. Most good sprint-runners are big, heavy 
men. The long-distance man is small and fight. The 
usual trouble with men of abnormal height and muscle 
is, that like badly designed aeroplanes, they make 
poor climbers, on account of a too low ratio of engine- 
power to load. The small man is not generally lacking 
in stamina, is often stronger, in relation to weight, than 
the big man, and, most valuable of all, is usually quicker. 
As an example of a climb where height is of special 
advantage, I may take the Xorth Climb on the Pillar 
Rock; in Cumberland. Here the route over " The 
Nose " can be done by the tall, strong, experienced 
leader without risk. For the short man this passage 
can never be quite safe. 

As C comes along the ledge his rope is drawn in by 
B, who has to hold it in his hands, as his position is not 
secure, and he has no hitch available. Perfect safety 
for the party is obtained by A, who is secure, and. with 
a good hitch, drawing up B"s rope over the hitch till 
it is tight, and thus " backing him up." " 

When C has got holds on the arete the party all 

» See Chapter Till. 



64 A BRITISH ROCK-CLIMB 

move on. The route now lies for a while up a steep 
and sensational ridge. It is, however, well broken 
up, of very sound rock, and they mount rapidly. This 
kind of climbing is, perhaps, the most enjoyable of all. 
There is every appearance of danger, practically none 
of the reality. Hitches are abundant, and, if the 
arete is sharp, are available on both sides. 

Moderate arete-climbs are most suitable for beginners 
who lack confidence in themselves. They teach that 
real safety often lies in the airiest positions. They 
help to banish the mental and moral illusion that it is 
necessary to suffer from giddiness on the heights. 

Writing from a wide experience of novices of all ages 
and both sexes, I can say that very few people are in- 
capacitated from climbing by dizziness. If the novice is 
interested in the climb, and has confidence in the leader, 
the necessity of becoming dizzy will soon be forgotten. 

Higher up the ridge widens out to a rounded buttress, 
at the foot of which is a broad, but badly sloping 
outwards, ledge of bare rock. Above, for about sixty 
feet, the rocks are very steep and smooth. Though 
there are ledges here and there, all have the same 
outward tilt as at the foot. B here comes off the rope, 
as A will require to run out nearly the whole of it 
before he stops. A says, "This is the only nasty bit on 
the climb, and not for a booted leader ; mine, at any 
rate, are coming off." He therefore sits down and 
removes not only his boots, but his stockings and socks 
also. He then replaces the stockings. It should be 
most carefully noted that slabby rocks should not be 
climbed in double stockings : this is dangerous. 

While A now starts up the slabs, B and C sit down on 
the ledge, which is hitch-less, backing each other up, 
and prepared to pull in the slack of A's rope should he 
produce any by falling off. A does not produce any. 
He climbs slowly and cautiously, mostly using the 
palms of the hands and the whole flat of the foot. 
Though he moves slowly, he moves continuously, and 
is at the top in a very few minutes. 




A SilOOTH SLAB. 
The limit of adhesion. 



64] 



A BRITISH ROCK-CLIMB 65 

The others come up one at a time in boots, C carrying 
both his own and As sack ; they can ascend easily and 
safely with only a comparatively slight pull on the 
rope from A. 

Above the '* nasty bit " the climbers arrive at the top 
of a tower or "gendarme/' From the far side of this 
a short, steep descent leads to a narrow " knife-edge."' 
This is level at first, but rises at the end to the final steep 
part of the climb. C is quite capable enough to take 
the responsible part of last man here. If B had been 
in that position a rearrangement of the rope would have 
been necessary : changing the rope here would be very 
inconvenient; to let B come down last might be danger- 
ous ; one or other would have had to be done on the 
A C B arrangement. Towards the end the knife arete 
slopes up somewhat steeply in slabs. A walks easily 
and quickly up these ; B prefers to stoop down and 
get his fingers into some diagonal cracks ; this he finds 
reassuring. 

The last difficulty is now encountered. It is a 
" mantel- shelf," about seven feet high. A skims easily 
up this. B, whose gymnastic training stands him in 
good stead, makes a better job of it than C, whose 
weight is here against him. Soon after they reach the 
final summit. Xone are sorry to reach it and to rest, 
contemplate the views, and investigate the contents 
of the lunch-sacks. B is surprised to find that they 
have taken four hours over the ascent of six hundred 
feet. Nothing is so surprising as the way time vanishes 
on a difficult rock or ice climb. 

It will be noticed that the styles of the three climbers 
differ widely. Taking them in order, A is what may be 
called a '"finished" climber. His style is smooth 
and flowing : it is also polished. He moves with an 
apparent absence of effort which is often puzzling, 
sometimes a little irritating to more powerful, though 
less practised men. He seldom requires to stop and 
look about for holds ; these appear to fall into his 
hands, or come under his feet of their own accord. 



66 A BRITISH ROCK-CLIMB 

His feet seem to have developed a separate intelligence 
of their own ; they know, at once, just the pressure and 
direction of it necessary to prevent slipping. Though 
he does not move fast, and on a short, difficult piece of 
20 feet in height he may be beaten for speed by B, on 
a similar climb of 200 feet B would be left far in the 
rear. The reason is that A moves continuously, is 
never spasmodic or jerky. On a descent these charac- 
teristics are even more marked. He appears to almost 
slip from hold to hold. Not an ounce more force is 
used than will just keep the law of gravity under control. 
B is, as has been said, a novice, but he has the makings 
of a first-class climber. He has strength, courage, en- 
thusiasm, and ' ' dash. ' ' The last quality has been depre- 
cated by some authorities for the young mountaineer. 
I would prefer to say, " Be prepared, then dare." The 
youthful climber wholly devoid of the youthful quality 
of dash will never make a really first-rate mountaineer. 

C, though lacking the supreme climbing abilities of 
A, is yet a good climber, and an excellent man to have 
in a climbing party, especially a mixed one. His 
strength, coolness, and experience will prove a tower 
of safety to it. He has the knowledge of his own 
limitations and the good sense not to exceed these. 
He may often be, though not the actual climbing 
leader, the " general " of the climbing party, and 
responsible for the main line and plan of the attack, 
while A does the detailed and physical leading. 

Some of the famous guides, and many of the amateurs, 
of early Alpine exploration, were of this type. Perhaps 
the best- known of these guides was Alexander Burgener 
of Saas, Mr. Mummery's guide in the Alps. 1 In few, 
if any, of the difficult rock passages did Burgener do 
the leading, a younger, lighter man was put forward. 
Yet to Burgener must be ascribed most of the credit 
for the success of the climb. 

1 In The Pioneers of the Alps, by Mr. F. Gribble, Burgener is stated 
to have been Mr. Mummery's guide in the Caucasus. This is an 



CHAPTER V 
snow-climbing in britain 

Time, Places, and Conditions 

Snow is, as everyone is aware, a very variable 
substance. From the light, air-filled flake, which 
hardly seems able to make up its mind to alight, but 
flits butterfly-like along a hill-side, to the heavy, sodden 
substance we call sleet, run its gradations. Again, it 
may take the form, in falling, of minute ice-crystals. 
These, again, may be gathered up by the wind, and 
blown and consolidated into great banks, cornices, and 
drifts. This form of snow, driven by a gale, will be 
found to penetrate right through ordinary clothing, 
and may prove fatal, unless clothing be worn which is 
able to keep it out. 

It is, of course, the snow, which, falling all the year 
round on Alpine heights, gradually, as it slips down, 
consolidates into those extraordinary rivers of ice 
which we call glaciers. 

Britain's Atlantic position, and her warm winds in 
winter, have, in the present age, prevented the formation 
of any true glaciers, in spite of the high rate of moisture 
deposition. Their prevalence in earlier times is very 
clearly seen in the moraines, perched blocks, scratched 
and rounded rocks (roches moutonnees) at the present 
day so obvious and abundant in many places. 

In order, then, to learn glacier work, where the cre- 
vasses run, the best passages through ice-falls, and 
similar details of Alpine ice- work, we must go abroad. 
Every one of the many other details of snow- craft and 
icemanship may be acquired within the limits of 

67 



68 SNOW-CLIMBING IN BRITAIN 

Great Britain. It is true we have no " long slopes 
of bare black ice," but we can console ourselves with 
the knowledge that no slopes answering to that descrip- 
tion are ever climbed in the Alps. 

We have, however, long steep slopes of a very hard 
and tough substance upon the highest faces, of north- 
east aspect, of our homeland hills, in late spring and 
early summer. This, which gives most excellent 
practice for ice-axe, crampon, or nailed boots, we may 
call snow-ice or neve. The condition does not appear 
common in the Alps. Dr. Claude Wilson, who, as well 
as others, remarks upon its occurrence on the Brenva 
route of Mont Blanc, considers it to be due to " great 
cold and enormous pressure." It would, however, seem 
more probable that it is caused by a rapid alternation 
of frost and thaw, such as is a very common pheno- 
menon both on the south face of Mont Blanc and on 
Ben Nevis. 

I quote here three descriptions. The first in date is 
taken from a paper written by me for The Scottish 
Mountaineering Club Journal, vol. ix., 1906, entitled 
" Scottish Snow." The other two are from the Alpine 
Journal. 

Nevis. — " These blocks exhibited all the tenacity 
of Scottish neve in late spring. If struck by the pick 
no result is produced ; it merely sinks in and remains. 
The only way to make any impression on this toughest 
of snow is to cut a groove with the adze, and drive out 
the piece with the pick." I compared this substance 
to a combination of the two proverbially opposed sub- 
stances, chalk and cheese. 

Mont Blanc. — " Short stretches of ice of the colour 
of Plaster of Paris, were encountered, so tough and 
unbrittle, that the axe-head simply stuck in them, 
without bringing anything away " (Captain J. P. 
Farrar, Alpine Journal, vol. xxvi., 1912, page 171). 

" Steep, slippery ice of a hardness unknown to us 
before, and with a curious quality unique in our ex- 
perience ... a quality of viscosity. The pick had 



SNOW IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 69 

often to be wriggled out, bringing very little away" 
(Dr. Claude Wilson, Alpine Journal, vol. xxvi., 1912, 
page 274). 

Though a certain amount of snow- climbing and ice- 
work is to be obtained on the English and Welsh hills 
in winter, it is naturally on the higher and more 
northern Scottish peaks where the conditions most 
closely approximate to the Alpine. The more southerly 
snows rarely lie long enough to get consolidated into 
the tough, reliable substance which we call snow-ice. 

On the highest Scottish hills the snow lies, on 
northern and eastern slopes, for many months of the 
year. In fact, in a few places, in gullies and corries, 
it never melts. These masses of snow-ice have been 
treated of in meteorological and geographical journals, 
as British glaciers, but the hard, tough substance of 
which they are composed is hardly true glacier ice. l 

On- Nevis, and on our highest hills, snow may fall 
any day in the year. It is, however, usually not until 
November is well advanced that it lies in any quantity. 
A mild December may see the Bens almost bare at 
New Year. After that date winter really sets in, 
with a deepening and a hardening of the snows. 
There is much less likelihood of a warm Atlantic gale 
causing, as I have seen at New Year, three feet of snow 
to vanish in two days, and raising the temperature, at 
4,000 feet, considerably above the average July tem- 
perature at that height. For nearly five months after 
the turn of the year the snow deepens and the cornices 
increase in weight above the N.E. faces. Even mid- 
June may see only a partial stripping of the snows. 
At the end of the first week in July, I have enjoyed a 
standing glissade of over 600 feet in a Nevis corrie. 
On a visit towards the middle of June, the party found 
all the rock ascents impossible, everything buried in ice 
and snow, and only succeeded in making the ascent of 

1 The Rev. R. P. Dansey, Symon's Meteorological Magazine, 
1905. Victor H. Gatty, The Geographical Journal,, 1905, " The 
Glacial Aspect of Ben Xevis." 



70 SNOW-CLIMBING IN BRITAIN 

one of the gullies, and evading the 20-foot cornice at the 
top, owing to the keen frost, and the admirable condition 
of the tough snow-ice filling the gully. The little 
hotel was at this date completely buried, and of the 
observatory on the summit only the tower protruded 
from out of the huge drift burying the rest of the build- 
ing. In September heavy falls may cover the upper 
1,000 feet of Nevis and the Cairngorms with a foot or 
two of new snow. Even in August quite heavy falls 
may occur. 

Avalanches. — These are many, and of formidable size, 
apart from exceptional slides such as are described in 
The Loss of Gaick, where a hut with a party of deer- 
stalkers was swept away. 

A warm, muggy day in late April or in May, will see 
the precipices and gullies streaming and thundering 
with the avalanches of falling cornices. These sweep 
down for two thousand feet, often bearing with 
them great rocks torn from the cliffs. Gullies in such 
conditions must be most carefully avoided, and indeed 
should not be attempted unless frost prevails. They 
are often safe in bad weather which is also cold. Snow 
in Scotland alters in condition even more rapidly than 
in the Alps. Sun has less influence, in inducing a state 
of rottenness, than a warm south-west wind from the 
Atlantic. Climbers then should follow the ridges. If 
more difficult than the gullies, they are much safer. 

Ice-falls. — The ice-falls referred to by Tennyson as 
" Firths of ice, which huddling slant in cloven frozen 
falls, to dash their torrents out of dusky doors," are, 
of course, not met with in Britain. Our ice-falls are 
frozen water-falls in gullies. These give climbing, 
which is usually much more difficult than any ice- 
work likely to be necessary in Alpine ice-falls. The 
practice' in axe-craft and iceman-ship is first-rate, but 
they must be attacked with discretion. The leader of 
the party, at any rate, should have had a lot of prac- 
tice in general mountaineering, before venturing on this 
difficult kind. The first description of the splendid 






f 



<&•* ten 




THE SCOTTISH ALPS IX SPRING. 



K* 






A SNOWSCAPE. GLISSADING. 



J. R. Young. 



70] 



CORXICES 71 

sport to be obtained in British ice-falls is *by Dr 
Xorinan Collie, and will be found in The Scottish 
Mountaineering Club Journal, vol. iii., page 1. Many 
other accounts of such climbs are to be found in later 
numbers of that journal, and in other British climbing 
journals. 

Cornices. — These are very usually present, often of 
great size, on all places similar to those where they 
occur in the Alps ; ridges, tops of gullies, and edges of 
plateaux. British cornices are seldom of actual ice, 
but are often built of snow-ice of extreme toughness ; 
their debris often survives in great blocks, after a fall 
of nearly 2,000 feet. 

The cornices at the head of the Xevis gullies have 
been bored through on more than one occasion. On 
the first of these a very strong party of Alpine amateurs 
took two days to get through, the intervening night 
being spent at Fort William. A Xevis cornice has 
been noted which was forty feet in height. 

Real ice practice, on ice as a rule much tougher than 
ordinary low-level glacier ice, may be often found on 
the flood waters frozen on the slabs of the upper corrie 
lips. 

The snow and ice work generally on the steep sides 
of our highest peaks is considerably more difficult 
than ordinary Alpine snow and ice work. 1 Before 
making any of the larger expeditions, it would be 
well for the complete novice to obtain experience by 
hill-walks in snow, and by the ascent, traverse, and 
descent of steep slopes of hard snow on lower and 
easier peaks. It will soon be discovered what splendid 
stuff ; ' good snow r; is ; how its presence often 
gives safe and reliable holds just where they are 
wanted. Knowledge will be acquired, perhaps un- 
consciously, of when snow can be trusted and when 
it cannot. Realisation will come of the only safe 

1 For a comparison between a Xevis ridge in ice and the Zmutt 
Arete of the Matterhorn, also under ice, see The Scottish Mountaineer- 
ing Club Journal vol. ix, s 1906, 



72 SNOW-CLIMBING IN BRITAIN 

method of dealing with snow and ice, the " Absolutely- 
Perpendicular " attitude of body. How to carry and 
use an ice-axe neatly and handily will soon be learned, 
as well as many other points of learning in the lore of 
the snows. This knowledge may prove invaluable on 
Alpine heights. 

Glissading. — By far the best place to learn glissading 
is on the lower hills in spring. There the conditions 
are more favourable for this method of Alpine travel — 
great fun and sport in itself — than on Alpine peaks in 
summer. In the Alps, in usual summer conditions, 
most places really suitable for glissading are then 
usually bare of snow. If snow is still left, it is often 
hard and bumpy, ridged and furrowed. Glissades are 
short, difficult, and fatiguing, and it is practically 
impossible to glissade in " good form." 

The inferior kind of glissade, the sitting, is even more 
seldom safe or possible in the summer Alps than is the 
standing. 

Old winter avalanche snow has been recommended 
as practice ground in summer. This is, however, about 
the worst kind of snow on which to learn ; correct 
style is usually impossible, and the fatigue inordinate. 

Those who are good ski-runners will require little 
teaching in standing glissades. Glissading is really 
a form of ski-ing. There are two methods in both. 
The beginner, the timid, and the man devoid of balance 
will adopt the " stick riding " method, though in 
glissading the stick, or ice-axe, is not held between the 
legs. On good snow, at a sufficient angle, the expert 
glissader's attitude is exactly that of the ski-runner, 
only, as his pace is not so fast, he does not lean forward 
so much ; he is almost exactly upright. He does not 
use his ice-axe as a prop, leaning back heavily on it. 
This is excessively fatiguing to the arms. The axe 
is used as a rudder, or emergency brake, both auxiliary 
to the feet. Pace is for the most part regulated by 
rising on the heels to check the speed, by pointing 
the toes down to increase it. In really good conditions. 





7. R. Youru 
STANDING GLISSADE. 




T*S 




SI1TIXG GLISSADE. 



GWSSADING 73 

the axe is lifted altogether and carried in front of the 
body in both hands, ready to be applied at once where 
wanted. 

The good glissader does not stand stiff as a doll, 
with feet splayed and level, nor does he straddle his 
legs and lie back on his axe, as exhibited in photographs 
of bad glissaders or bad conditions. He stands almost 
bolt upright, leaning ever so slightly forward. One 
foot has a decided lead, the other follows behind slightly 
to one side, but not straddled out. If a sudden check 
occurs to the splay-footed, level-toed slider, he is 
almost sure to lose his balance. On the correct method, 
when the check occurs, the after foot is at once swung 
forward ; perhaps even a short run is inserted in the 
slide, without interrupting its even flow. The method, 
in fact, is very similar to that adopted by the bold, con- 
fident small boy on an ice-slide, and is equally success- 
ful. 

In fast glissading the front leg is very nearly straight : 
when the going is slow, and the toes have to be much 
pointed down to bring the flat of the foot to bear on the 
slope, then both knees must be somewhat bent. When 
the snow is furrowed, hard, and bumpy, a certain 
amount of leaning back is necessary. This is what 
makes Alpine summer glissades usually so unsatis- 
factory and fatiguing, as the strain on the arms is in 
this case severe. 

Roped standing glissades, like roped ski-ing, are 
theoretically possible. In practice, two, I think, will 
be found about the limit for such a party, and then 
only if both are experts. In glissading, as in climbing 
down, the best man goes last. 

It is probable that good glissading would be obtain- 
able in the Alps in June and early in July, but then the 
peaks might be inaccessible. Personally speaking, I 
have found the best glissading, in Scotland in late 
spring, and on the Continent in Norway and the Cau- 
casus early in July. On a number of occasions heights 
of 2,500 to 3,000 feet, were descended in not manv more 



74 SNOW-CLIMBING IN BRITAIN 

minutes than the ascent had cost hours : notably 
2,500 feet down the top cone of Elbruz. 

On a very steep slope, I believe the glissader will 
beat the man on ski every time, as the latter must, of 
course, zig-zag, or swing. No rule can be laid down 
for glissading angles : condition of the snow is even 
more important than angle. Glissading should never 
be indulged in when there is the least chance of starting 
an avalanche. The knowledge of this belongs to the 
general technics of mountaineering. 1 The warning 
applies even more strongly to the sitting glissade. 

Sitting Glissades. — This is an altogether inferior 
method of glissading. Though it may not seem so, 
it is in fact much more likely to cause damage to the 
glissader (or his clothes) than is the standing. The 
fact that it is done on much softer snow, and at much 
lower angles, tends to conceal the fact of its greater 
relative danger. 

Control is really more difficult on the sitting method. 
There is almost always a tendency for the snow to 
pile up under the slider until control is lost. When 
this happens the slider should roll or wriggle sideways 
with the aid of the ice-axe, until a new and thinner 
layer of snow intervenes between him and the under 
surface. If this is done habitually on safe places, 
where it does not much matter if control is lost, it will 
be easier to carry out should an emergency arise. 

It has been stated that the best method of control, in 
sitting glissades, is to grasp the ice-axe by the shaft, 
and to use the pick, or even the adze, as a brake. With 
this I am wholly unable to agree. The safe position 
on a steep, hard snow slope is bolt upright on one's feet, 
because then, apart from the axe, we can apply in the 
most effective manner the couple of hundred or so 
small sharp brakes we possess on the soles of our climb- 
ing-boots, and these are pressed against the surface 
with the whole weight of our upright body. If we 
are on a sitting glissade, come on a harder place or a 

1 See Chapter XIII. 



SITTING GLISSADES 75 

higher angle, and wish to stop or assume the safe 
position quickly, we use the ice-axe. 1 We must use 
it in such a manner that it will not be lost. Should 
we attempt to stop with the pick or adze while moving 
at any pace, the slope gets the axe, not the " sloper." 
Even if we do manage to brake at a low speed, by 
holding the axe by the head, and applying the pick as 
low down as we can reach, this will almost certainly 
result in injury to the hands. 

Both methods are wrong in principle, and are not 
necessary. To avoid risk of losing our safety-stick we 
hold it thus : the axe-shaft is grasped near the head 
by one hand, palm upwards, the lower hand grasping 
it by about the middle, palm downwards ; the spike is 
then pressed into the snow, on either side, as steering 
or braking is desired. Pressure, from a few ounces 
to more than half the weight of the body can be brought 
to bear upon such a brake, and taken off again, and 
this as quickly or as gradually as desired, 'by raising 
the body on the lower arm and heels, and stiffening 
or relaxing the legs. 

An anchor — that is, an ice-axe pick — is not shaped or 
suitable for a brake, which depends for real efficiency 
on its gradual application. Applying the principle 
to rock-climbing, the parallel is between the bad and 
wrong method of " belaying " a rope round a hitch 
and the correct method over a hitch. 

Couloirs in the Alps are sometimes glissaded ; so 
are douloirs at home. It should be remembered that 
such places usually possess bergschrunds. These, at 
home, may not be open, but will probably exist at a 
steep drop or pitch in the bed of the gully. The stream, 
in the late spring, may be running underneath, and 
nothing but a thin skin of snow left above to act as 
a trap. Accidents have happened to incautious glis- 
saders at such places. The famous French climber, 
M. Henri Cordier, was drowned in Dauphine through 

1 For instance, the top part of our slide may be in sun, the lower 
in shade. 



76 SNOW-CLIMBING IN BRITAIN 

falling into such a trap. Their probable place of 
occurrence can be clearly observed, in many cases, 
by the increased angle of the gully-bed, or the contour 
of its sides. Steep gullies with known schrunds, or 
weak places, if glissaded, should be done in stages 
with a long rope. 

Roped sitting glissading may also be done to aid a 
beginner and teach him his controls. It is, like roped 
ski-ing, difficult to work, and often painful and un- 
pleasant, unless all the party are experts. 

Beginners at sitting glissading should have previously 
ascended the slope they propose to descend, or should 
know at any rate that the slope does not suddenly 
increase, or finish on ice low down. If the course is 
strewn with boulders which project above the snow, 
if glissaded at all, control must be retained. Weak, 
open, or iced spaces commonly exist round such 
boulders, and, unless given a wide berth, an un- 
pleasant jar, to say the least, may occur. 

Those who first attempt the sitting glissade will often 
find, if the snow is somewhat hard, that a very cold 
substance can generate a very considerable amount of 
heat. The following quaint and amusing account of 
his experiences is taken from the narrative of the 
Baboo Sarat Chandra Das, who was sent by the Indian 
Government over the Himalayan passes to Lhassa. 

" I girded up my clothing, and, holding the edge 
of the lower part of my robe, slipped along. Instantly 
I was carried down and hurled to a depth of more than 
a hundred feet below. There I brought myself up 
by fixing my elbows into the snow like a brake, at the 
same time lifting my hinder parts a little. ... In the 
third slide we met with slippery ice, rather than snow 
crystals, and consequently got pains in the back, 
caused by friction on the hard substance." The 
Baboo's method of braking is effective only in very soft 
snow ; usually it is too painful, as well as destructive 
to the clothes, to be employed. Sitting glissaders, at 
any time, should see that they wear " knickerbockers 



SKI-RUXXIXG 77 

garnished with a double seat/' Guiding and checking 
with the heels is quite effective. It has. however, the 
serious defect when the pace is good, and the snow at 
all soft, of driving a stream of snow against the face. 
This can be extremely painful. 

Ski 

It would be impossible to deal with mountaineering 
nowadays without mention of that splendid allied 
sport, ski-running. Mention of it. however, will here 
be brief : the sport has now a huge number of clubs for 
its propagation and practice, and a great and increasing 
literature of its own. It is, perhaps, next to mountain- 
eering, the finest and most exhilarating sport in the 
world. Its importance, as an aid to or part of moun- 
taineering, has in my opinion been greatly exaggerated. 
After all, the angles and terrain suitable for the ski- 
runner are just those tedious and uninteresting for 
the mountaineer. Lest it be thought that I write 
with prejudice, I may mention that I learned ski-ing, 
before knowing anything about mountaineering, in 
Norway, as far back as 1892, and traversed the same 
year several Scottish hills. The result of my own 
experience since, and a study of Alpine, Caucasian, 
and Himalayan ski-ing, has forced me to the conclusion 
that, except sometimes on the lower slopes of the Alps 
in winter, skis are far more trouble than they are worth 
to the mountaineer. As regards the Caucasus, Messrs. 
Egger and Miescher took skis with them on their ascent 
of Elbruz (18,500 feet) in 1914; but I do not gather 
that, as time and labour-saving aids, they were of any 
use, while I am quite sure that, if our party who made 
the climb in 1913 had been burdened with skis, we 
should certainly have failed to get up. The fact is 
that climbing on skis is, unless at easy angles, des- 
perately hard work. 

In winter, a man on rackets will often easily beat the 
man on skis on the ascent. The joy and beauty of the 
ski is only developed on the descent. For the purpose 



78 SNOW-CLIMBING IN BRITAIN 

of obtaining this exhilarating pleasure, ski-ing uphill 
is well worth while : for climbing steep peaks it is 
unsuited. Non-slipping irons, ropes, and crampons 
have been sometimes used on skis. It seems tolerably 
certain that at places where these are of any use, it 
would be easier to put the crampons on the feet and 
drag the skis. Himalayan experiences seem to bear 
out Caucasian ; skis are not worth their weight. Dr. 
Jacot Guillarmod states, in Six Mois Dans V Himalayas , 
that on his party's several months' siege of K2, when 
Dr. Wessely and he reached a height of nearly 22,000 
feet, that he found skis useful on one occasion. 

In Britain we are too much under warm Atlantic 
influences to make even winter ski-ing either certain 
or widely popular. As a rule, the snow is either soft 
and sticky stuff, or hard, thin, and icy. If the British 
mountaineer cannot get to the Continent to learn the 
allied sport, he should seek hilly places farthest removed 
from the sea. In England this will be Derbyshire, in 
Scotland the watershed of the Tay and Spey basins 
near Dalwhinnie, or the head of the Dee Valley above 
Braemar. Here, in February, March, and April, he 
may get a few days' good ski-running. 

Though ski-running is not, in my opinion, moun- 
taineering, the two sports react on one another. A 
good ski-runner has all the makings of a good moun- 
taineer, and a good mountaineer will become an expert 
ski-runner in a fraction of the time a non-mountaineer 
will take to learn. 

The following chapter is not an account of any par- 
ticular ascent, but contains descriptions of most of the 
difficulties likely to be met with on a first-class British 
snow and ice climb. Many easier climbs are to be 
found, some more difficult have been done. 1 The aim 
is, as with the Alpine ascent, to give a general picture 
of the conditions. 

1 See The Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal, " A Scottish 
Snow-climb." 



CHAPTER VI 

A BRITISH SNOW-CLIMB 

The party consists of four friends, the time is mid- 
April, and the climb they propose to make is that of 
a 4,000 feet Scottish peak from sea-level, and by way 
of a gully and ridge on its north-east face. 

Of the party, A is a thoroughly capable mountaineer, 
with all that that implies. D is a man who has had 
a lot of experience in the Alps with good guides. B 
and C are strong and active British summer cragsmen.. 

It is a pleasant, sunny, but sharp morning, with a 
faint air from the north-east, as they leave their sea- 
level night- quarters at seven a.m. Six o'clock would 
have been more suitable had the party been a little less 
strong and capable. They carry 100 feet of rope, two 
lanterns, plenty of food, and their woollies, spare and 
working gloves, helmets and extras, are rather more 
and warmer than for Alpine work. The ascent they 
propose making is longer, harder, and considerably 
more difficult than most one-day Alpine expeditions. 

The snow-line lies at a wonderfully uniform height of 
about 2,000 feet above the sea. The ground beneath 
this is bare, except for a few drift-patches, and is covered 
with long, dead bracken-stems and the bleached grass of 
last year ; the turf under this becomes hard and frozen 
as they reach 1,500 feet or so. Under the dead vege- 
tation are concealed plates and bulbs of glassy green 
ice. Stumbles cannot always be avoided, even by the 
most expert. Those who have good boots with sharp 
nails, and are quick with their axes, will avoid falls. 
They now turn a shoulder and climb steeply upwards, 



80 A BRITISH SNOW-CLIMB 

beside a sparkling burn. The stream-bed is here and 
there filled up with snow masses, beneath which the 
water runs in icy caverns. This snow gives good 
walking and convenient bridges ; it is in frost extremely 
tough and strong. 

Two hours from the start they enter the corrie below 
the face for which they are making. They have here 
reached 2,000 feet, and the snow, till now intermittent, 
becomes continuous. The great precipices above are 
heavily draped with snow and ice. Any water-drain- 
age areas are now enormous masses of green, blue, and 
black ice. Huge cornices run along the summit of 
the cliffs. Many hundreds of tons have fallen from 
these some time ago, and their remains, in shattered 
blocks, form long cones of avalanche debris at the foot 
of the larger gullies. 

There is no risk from avalanches to-day : it is now 
hard frost, and the feeble sun of a Scottish April, which, 
it should be remembered, corresponds to about Febru- 
ary in the Alps, hardly touches these north-east faces. 
The leader points out the route proposed. It lies 
up a great gully, or couloir, about 1,500 feet in height, 
which cleaves the line of the crags. It looks almost 
vertical, but A knows that the general angle does not 
exceed 50°, though there are two difficult places, 
pitches in summer, of much greater angle. One of 
these is near the foot, the other about half-way up. 
There is, of course, also the summit cornice, but for 
the evasion of this A has a plan. 

The party, therefore, cross the corrie towards the 
foot of the couloir. Here they come across a " snow- 
bog." The powdery snow driven from the cliffs and 
slopes by a gale has settled here, and has become 
covered, through the action of a subsequent thaw, with 
a crust of ice. This sometimes bears, sometimes does 
not ; making progress through such a " bog " is both 
exhausting and exasperating. 

Fortunately the distance is not great, and they soon 
reach the debris tongue at the foot of the couloir and 



1* 



* 




ASCENDING HARD SNOW. 




DESCENDING HARD SNOW. 



A BRITISH SNOW-CLIMB 81 

proceed up it. At first steps can be kicked and all 
move at once. When it becomes too hard to kick, 
the leader slashes steps with the adze of the axe. 

They halt for lunch on a snow ledge under the right 
wall of the gully mouth, and, this finished, now rope 
up in the order, A, B, D, C. In summer a pitch of 
about eighty feet exists here. This is now filled, up 
to the last ten feet, by a vast mass of steeply sloping 
neve. At its summit the neve does not quite reach 
the rocks of the pitch ; there is a gap. The leader 
finds himself, after careful probing and testing of its 
strength, his rope well tended by B and D, standing on 
the tip of a long tongue of neve ; beneath is a great 
black vacancy, its depth fathomless to sight. 

After a good deal of work, the leader manages to find 
a place where, the rope well held by B and D, it is 
possible to lean over and get a hold on the opposite wall. 
He crosses and ascends, estabhshing himself in good 
snow some twenty feet higher. With the aid of the 
rope from above, the others have no serious difficulty 
except the last man, C, who finds the space seriously 
widened by the manoeuvres of the three preceding 
him, and has to be hauled, when he at last makes up 
his mind to cross by jumping. There is now no further 
difficulty for a long way. The party kick steps in 
good snow at an angle of 45", and mount rapidly for 
600 feet. Though the ascent is easy, such an angle 
in such a place looks horribly steep to a novice. In 
even some Alpine narratives this angle is called " about 
60°;" which shows at any rate that the writer was 
impressed by it. The slope gradually steepens to 50 3 
below the second difficulty, and close up against 
it the snow lies for a few feet at an angle of 60° ; above 
that appears the ice of the second difficulty. 

At an angle of 50°, even on good snow, were there 
novices, timid, or uncertain members in the party, 
it would be advisable to proceed in rope's lengths. 
On this method the leader, who has an unusually long 
rope, cuts, kicks, or slashes small steps until he has 



82 A BRITISH SNOW-CLDIB 

all the rope out. He then makes four good steps, and, 
driving in the axe and using it as a hitch, brings the 
others up in perfect security. The reason of the four 
steps is, that when B comes up, A can hand over the 
charge of the party to him, B can use A's ice-axe hole, 
while he himself again advances. 

The method of driving an axe into hard snow is by 
taking the head in both hands, getting above the axe, 
and driving in the shaft with straight arms and the 
weight of the body, giving a slight turn to the shaft 
as the spike sinks in. 

The second obstacle is a formidable one. The pitch 
here is mostly buried, but the upper part is bare. 
It has been a small water-slide. It is now an almost 
vertical mass of ribs, stalactites, and curtains of ice. 
This will cost an expert leader more than an hour of 
hard work to overcome, though it is not much more than 
twenty feet in height. The rest of the party arrange 
themselves in a shallow cave on the right side, and the 
hitch is made by laying the leader's rope over two axes 
driven almost up to the head in the good snow below 
the ice-fall. 

When a hitch is wanted on snow, it is a common 
error to take a turn of the rope round a driven- in axe. 
This is a very bad mistake. If A were to fall off the 
ice-pitch, it is desired to stop him as gently as possible. 
No scope for gradual stoppage exists with a rope round 
an ice-axe. Three things may happen : the axe 
is pulled out, is broken, or A's ribs are. By laying the 
rope over a well- driven- in axe-shaft which is sloped 
slightly up-hill, the strain, however heavy, will not 
break the axe or pull it out, as it is mainly transferred 
to the snow. * The rope also can be run out and the 
sudden strain or shock wholly prevented. 

A now tackles the fall. Owing to the steepness, 
good toe-holds and pulling in hand-holds must be 
made. This is very exhausting work, as only one hand 
is of course available. After getting about ten feet up, 
A comes down again for a rest, and D has a try. He 



A BRITISH SNOW-CLIMB 83 

soon has enough of it, as he tires much quicker than 
A : not that he is weaker, but his balance is less perfect, 
and the strain on his left arm is in consequence severe. 
Cramp threatens quickly. Coming down rather 
hurriedly, he slips from the last ice-step, but is easily 
fielded by A and B. A now resumes, and, breaking 
through a regular curtain of ice, obtains some splendid 
pigeon-hole steps which make also first-rate holds. 
He reaches -good snow above, cuts some secure stands, 
and the others then come up quickly. The slope above 
the ice-fall was of 40°, it now again rises to nearly 50°, 
and some " bad " snow is encountered. This is a thin 
crust of icy stuff, covering several inches of soft snow, 
beneath which again is hard neve. It would be possible 
here to advance quickly by kicking pigeon-holes in the 
upper crust. In such a position as the party has now 
reached this would be a most rash and dangerous 
proceeding. 

I have seen a crust of this description in a steep 
gully about sixty feet wide, break right across, and 
slip down several feet. Luckily it then stopped. 

The correct way to go to work here, is to smash the 
crust with the head of the axe, scoop out the soft stuff 
with the adze, and cut steps in the underlying snow. 
This is slow, but it is safe ; it is our party's method. 
They are now approaching the final difficulty, and 
again get on good snow. The leader is anxiously 
scanning the conditions ahead. 

This last real difficulty, the cornice, though, as 
evidenced by the debris at the foot, considerably 
reduced of late, still shows a slightly overhanging wall, 
twenty-five feet high in line with the gully. This 
may be considered as impossible ; the leader seeks 
to evade it. The walls of the gully are here very steep. 
They are plastered with ice and snow ; moreover, all 
the holds have a disagreeable outward tilt. No way 
of escape offers here. In the right-hand corner, where 
the cornice sweeps round to meet the gully wall, its 
height falls to about ten feet, and it is not quite 



84 A BRITISH SNOW-CLIMB 

vertical. Here is the weak point, and the party make 
for this. 

Where the cornice steepens from the gully angle a 
miniature bergschrund appears. This is just wide 
enough for A to get in his left leg well past mid-thigh. 
He then beats, kicks, and cuts a sloping upward tra- 
verse to the corner. Arrived here, his rope is all out : 
so first B and then D get into the crack with their left 
legs and follow on. C remains well hitched in the 
gully. A's two immediate followers then pass their 
axes up to him. He proceeds to construct a staircase 
with their aid up the wall. A drives the axes into the 
neve almost up to the head, and mounts upon them, 
holding himself in and aiding the ascent with well-cut 
hand-holds in the tough cornice snow-ice. With some 
cutting, he is able to get his own axe-shaft driven in to 
the flat cornice top and when it is firm drags himself 
over the edge, and the gully is vanquished. The 
others have little difficulty in following. C, the last 
man, has the hardest work of the three. Held by the 
rope, he has to extract and pass up the " keys " of the 
ascent, the two ice-axes, and is then hauled up himself. 

The party now find themselves on the top of a rock 
ridge, this slopes down slightly to a little gap, then 
rises more steeply to the final summit of the mountain. 

The rock ridge is narrow, and steep on both sides. 
It is now everywhere, that it is not actually vertical, 
buried in ice and snow. Small cornices bend over, first 
on one side, then on the other. Sharp inch- wide 
aretes of hard snow connect the little rock towers. 
Though really quite safe going, except in a high wind, 
such a place is exceedingly impressive, and is nervous 
work for the novice. Pace is necessarily much slower 
than in summer. The leader must often cut down the 
apex of an arete, or smash with heavy blows of the 
sideways-turned axe-head, the beautifully carved crest 
of a little cornice. If holds are wanted, they must be 
dug for and discovered under the concealing snow 
mantle. This kind of place is a good test of the real 





pq 



A BRITISH SXOW-CLBIB 85 

mountaineer. Good balance foot-work is far more 
important than any amount of muscular arm-power. 

The ridge is short ; the party soon break through the 
small incipient cross cornice that marks its junction 
with the main mountain mass. They walk up the 
hard, wind-swept, icy neve, to the stick which still 
marks the site of the buried cairn on the summit of 
the peak. 

Here they are rewarded with views of snows no less 
beautiful and impressive than from many an Alpine 
summit, and in addition there is spread before them. 
a glorious vision of that majestic complement of 
mountains,, the ocean. 

They descend, as evening draws near, by an easier 
side, and on the way down may have glissades, both 
sitting and standing, of much better quality than any 
likely to be met with on Alpine ascents four months 
later. 



SECTION III 
A LPIXE MO UNTA IN E ERIN G 



87 



CHAPTER VII 

CENTRES ; GUIDE-BOOKS ; HOTELS ; GUIDES ; PORTERS ; 
HUTS 

This section deals with modern moiintaineering as 
carried on in the Alps of central Europe. It is not 
proposed to give any personal narrative of particular 
ascents. In the second part an account of a climb 
will be given, which, though imaginary, is a kind of 
composite photograph comprehending all the features 
characteristic of Alpine peak-climbing. 

Centres 

In all probability the Alpine novice, whether with 
British or other experience or not. will pay his first 
visit to one of the three chief centres, Chamonix, 
Grindelwald, or Zermatt. 

To this course he will most likely be drawn by his 
reading of old Alpine adventures, by the advice of 
friends who have already been there, or by the facility 
of access. 

It is certainly the fact that these three centres are 
by far the best places for the novice who wishes, with 
guides, to be introduced into the very heart of the 
Alpine ice world — they are perhaps, nowadays, not so 
suited for learning real mountaineering. 

There are, of course, innumerable other climbing 
centres. The Dolomites have a charm of their own. 
The Engadine can show fine ice scenery and some good 
peaks. Dauphine is rugged and grand, and possesses 
splendid and difficult mountains, hardly perhaps suited 

89 



90 CENTRES, HOTELS, GUIDES, ETC. 

to the novice. The Italian side of the Alps is even 
finer than the French and Swiss. Nevertheless, the 
access to the heights is easiest at the first-named 
centres ; they have greater hotel and hut facilities ; 
they also possess the largest number of competent, 
experienced guides. 

Guide-Books 

Guide-books innumerable have been brought out for 
all the chief districts, and for most of the minor districts 
of the central European Alps. Some of the most useful 
of these will be found in the list of books at the end of 
this volume. A warning may here be given with 
regard to the times in some of these climbing guides. 
Climbing times, to be of much use, should be fair average 
times. Records may be dangerously misleading. Far 
more important factors than the strength or ability 
of a party, in their influence upon the speed of the 
ascent, are those of number in the party, and, above all, 
condition of the mountain. The same party of experts 
may take twice the number of hours to open the ascent, 
say of the Weisshorn, in June, that they did to climb 
it in the previous August. Mountaineering has no 
kind of resemblance to a flat race. If records are 
given in a climber's guide, it is safe to allow from 25 to 
50 per cent, more time to make them probable times 
for an average party. Another warning may also 
be given with regard to those climbing guide-books, 
mainly continental, which give elaborate dotted 
diagrams of climbs. These, from exigencies of scale, 
are only very roughly accurate. Difficult places 
where straying is likeliest are not shown. 

The would-be mountaineer's best guides should be 
the government maps, on a scale of not less than 1 in 
50,000, the compass, the aneroid, and some half-plate 
photographs of his peak and its surroundings. It 
requires, of course, some little practice to read a map 
and photograph together correctly. Anyone who 



HOTELS AND GUIDES 91 

aspires to lead a party in the Alps should certainly 
make himself an expert in this. 

Hotels 

These are innumerable, and of all grades, at most of 
the great mountain centres. Many are huge caravan- 
serais, where the climbers are completely submerged 
in the torrents of touristdom which flood the Alpine' 
valleys in the high Alpine season. 

Some hotels have old climbing associations, and the 
novice will likely be attracted to these for sentiment's 
sake. 

This is not an hotel guide, but there is one point 
about which a would-be climber may be doubtful ; 
whether he should be a pensionnaire, or pay as he goes. 
This really depends upon whether he is an ex- centrist, 
or a centrist. There is no doubt that for the man who 
wishes, with guides, to enjoy as much luxury and com- 
fort as possible, and at the same time ascend as many 
peaks as he can for the smallest expenditure, it 
decidedly pays to be a pensionnaire, or centrist. He 
enjoys the benefit of a much lower tariff. He receives 
more consideration in an often crowded hotel. He is 
free for a time from the baggage nuisance. His guides 
are at home and handy, he is not put to the expense 
of their maintenance. Family ties, ignorance of the 
language of the natives, and desire to avoid trouble, 
will induce many to follow the centrist plan. The man 
who always confines himself to this can never take 
high rank as a mountaineer. 

Guides 

The standard of mountaineering craft, if not of art, 
among the best guides, has undoubtedly risen of late 
years. At the same time there is as little doubt, that 
the average level reached by the general body has 

fallen. 



92 CENTRES, HOTELS, GUIDES, ETC. 

The pioneer guides, who have been written of with 
respect, indeed with affection, by the men of high 
character and mental ability who enjoyed their services 
and comradeship, were naturally the pick of the most 
daring and enterprising men of their valleys. 

Nowadays things tend to become more mechanical ; 
character suffers. The enormous development of 
Alpine climbing, and the high pay, has attracted into 
" the guiding profession many Alpine peasants who have 
no real calling for it. These men are steady, honest 
workmen, who may be trusted to carry out their 
contracts with punctuality and despatch. The ABC 
of their art is quite enough to enable them to handle 
the average Alpine tourist on standard routes well 
known to them, and under good conditions ; they never 
learn any more. If anything unusual is asked of them 
they will refuse, or bungle it. To take such men to 
a new country is asking for annoyance and trouble, 
and getting it. These men never attempt to teach 
mountaineering, and to follow or imitate their methods 
would be extremely bad policy. 

The advice is freely given to the novice that he should 
employ and study only first-rate guides. Unfortun- 
ately for the novice, the man who gives him that advice 
has usually prevented him from following it by engag- 
ing the guide himself. The best guides are usually 
booked up by the cognoscenti, often a year in advance. 
The novice will usually have to put up with the second- 
clsss man, by far the most numerous. 

Of the third-class guides it is not necessary to say 
much. They are not a numerous body, but, in spite 
of the examinations, the certificates, and the " books," 
they still manage to exist. Natural stupidity, illness, 
accident, or old age may put a man in the third-class 
category. Perhaps he owes his deficiencies to a too free 
use of the brandy-flask, though this defect is more 
commonly found among the old porters. Brandy is 
not necessary for an Alpine expedition. A traveller, 
in engaging guides, should let it be clearly known that 



GUIDES 93 

not only will he refuse to pay for any brandy, but he 
will not allow a bottle to be carried. If a guide says 
he must, have brandy, refuse to engage him. If the 
man really needs it he is down on his last reserves, and 
is not safe for a long expedition. 

The traveller should himself carry a flask of good 
strong cognac, as a reserve. He may allow the guides 
a sip or two if he thinks the occasion requires it, but 
the less spirits drunk during a climb the better. The 
guides' usual drink is the red wine of the country ; a 
bottle apiece of that will do them no harm. 1 The only 
objection against it is its weight. 

There is undoubtedly a difficulty for the novice 
climber in the Alps in obtaining the services of a good 
guide. The porter at his hotel will usually be able to 
furnish someone. This man may not necessarily be bad ; 
it is obvious, however, that other influences besides 
merit may have led to his name being given. Two 
hints may be given as to guides to avoid. If his book 
shows that he is mainly a one-peak man, on no account 
have anything to do with him unless for that peak. 
Firmly decline all offers from the guide who touts for 
employment at stations en route for Alpine resorts, and 
expresses his willingness to take you anywhere before 
he knows of what you are capable. 

As there is a difficulty, for a novice, in getting in 
touch with a really good man, so is there difficulty for 
a first-rate young guide in getting his name known. 
It is as well to take particular note of the Christian 
name, and nickname, of a smart young guide you have 
been told of. Cases have occurred, owing to so many 
guides in the various centres having similar names, of 
annoyance to the travellers, and serious loss of reputa- 
tion suffered by a really good guide, through the 
delinquencies of an inferior man of similar name. It 
would appear a sensible plan for guides to advertise 
in the technical journals, as do gamekeepers and 
yachtsmen. An even better plan might be for the 

1 See Chapter XIV. 



94 CENTRES, HOTELS, GUIDES, ETC. 

guides to place themselves in the hands of an agent in 
the various capitals whence come their clientele. The 
guides would pay nothing, but would give particulars 
of themselves, and send their books annually to the 
agent to copy their list of expeditions. 

Thus a traveller would be able to secure before start- 
ing a suitable guide in any district. The prices of all 
the usual ascents are all now fixed by tariff. For any 
special climb, mutual agreement could be come to. If 
the traveller, or the guide, objects that hereby he is 
engaging himself with a man of whom he knows nothing 
personally, he could have a clause inserted in his agree- 
ment allowing for a mutual break after a week or a 
fortnight. 

It would really seem better, in any case, for an agree- 
ment with a guide, to be in the form of a signed letter. 
It is notorious how easy it is for misunderstandings to 
arise over words spoken a month or so previously. 

With regard to the number of guides to be taken, 
this so varies with the numbers, age, and capabilities 
of the party that no general rule can be laid down. 
There are in several Alpine centres special rules on the 
subject. 

Doubtless many parties are often over-guided. 
Under- guiding, due to ill-judged economy on the part 
of the traveller, possibly to jealousy or greed on the 
part of a guide, is more likely to occur. A few rough 
generalities as regards numbers may be given. 

For a first-class expedition, a novice must take two 
guides, or at least a guide and a porter. Two travellers 
can go with two guides and one porter, and, if they 
choose to do some carrying, can omit the porter. If 
one of them is a climber of some experience they can 
manage with one guide and porter, and, if doing most 
of the carrying, can omit the porter. When a single 
guide goes with three or four amateurs, the climb is 
either of a very minor character, or the guide is there 
simply in the restricted sense, and is not in command 
of the party. 



GUIDES 95 

As to who is in command of the party : as in war. 
there must never be the slightest doubt about this. 
More disasters can be traced to the absence of a clear 
understanding on this point than to any other cause. 
Old. experienced mountaineers, who take a young 
guide, may be trusted to make their own rules. It is 
obviously unfair to place the responsibility of decision, 
say, of ordering a guide to proceed up a difficult place, 
evidently close to the limit of his powers, or of pushing 
on in bad or doubtful weather, upon the employing 
novice. He should decline this. He, however, where 
failure to make the ascent, due to illness, or unfit- 
ness on his part, is likely, ought in that case to inform 
the guides that they will not be pecuniary sufferers 
through his default, otherwise they may be tempted 
to push on. 

Besides doing the work of guiding, the guides will 
also look after the traveller's boots, perhaps mend his 
clothes. They will cook, wait, and clean up in the huts 
not provided with a guardian, and generally act as 
the employer's servant. I have, however, seen the 
roles reversed in the case of a certain famous guide, 
since deceased, and a continental lady climber. 

Guides'' Books, etc. — Almost every mountain guide 
in the chief resorts is now a member of a trade union. 
Tariffs are all fixed and printed, and can be obtained 
in the hotels, at the Bureau des Guides in the village, 
or in the guides' books. Every guide is supposed to 
carry a book containing his certificate and description, 
and the tariff of the chief ascents. The guides have 
these books and certificates issued to them after their 
passing an examination as regards general knowledge 
and technical fitness. This examination, of varying 
strictness, is conducted by the authorities competent 
to do so in the different localities : usually, the national 
Alpine Clubs endeavour to have control of this. 

Most guides nowadays are comparatively well- 
educated men. Some Swiss guides can speak three, 
or even four languages, in addition to their own patois. 



96 CENTRES, HOTELS, GUIDES, ETC. 

The traveller is supposed to write in the guide's 
book an unbiassed opinion of the climb he has just 
done, and of the guide's conduct of it. As the great 
majority of Alpine travellers have little or no know- 
ledge of mountaineering, their opinion on the subject 
is naturally of very slight value. They might easily 
do less than justice to a really good man who was less 
suave and plausible than another. 

The list of climbs done is, however, a good test, and 
if it shows a number of peaks and passes outside his 
native valley, the man is probably a mountaineer, and 
not merely a workman. Guiding is, of course, not a 
whole-time occupation ; many guides are peasant 
proprietors, others are tradesmen. Some go to 
work in the great cities during the winter. They 
are not always improved in manners, or character, by 
this migration. 

The great development of winter sports, especially 
ski-ing, of late years has virtually doubled the earnings 
and employment of the younger guides. 

Time-work and Piece-work. — The list of climbs in the 
guides' books are tariffed at piece-work rates. This 
is for those tourists and climbers who may want to 
make one or two standard climbs, such as Mont Blanc, 
or the Matterhorn. It is a much better plan, and also 
cheaper if the weather is favourable, and the traveller 
a good walker, to engage the guide on time-work. 
He is then paid a flat rate per day, irrespective of what 
is done, or he may be paid something extra for a big 
expedition, receiving reduced or half-rate pay for off- 
days, a firm engagement being made for a week, fort- 
night, month, or longer. 

During the month of August a good guide can 
generally earn, if the weather is at all favourable, a 
much larger amount on piece-work than he can on time, 
and this fact should be remembered by those who seek 
to monopolise his services then. At other times the 
rates are easier. 

The piece-work system is not a good one for those 



PORTERS 97 

who wish to enjoy and learn mountaineering. The 
guides naturally want to finish the climb with the 
smallest possible delay : it may mean their losing 
another job if they are not back at the starting centre 
early. The traveller is therefore made to get up in 
the middle of the night. He is hustled to the top of 
his peak, mainly in the dark. He is not given a 
moment to admire the views, or the dawn. He is 
only permitted the briefest space at the top, and is 
rattled down again at the utmost of his powers, arriving 
at his hotel early in the afternoon in a state of partial 
or total collapse. 

If the tourist is young, strong, and active, and has 
gone reasonably well, his piece-work guides will flatter 
him by saying he is a " chamois " and has " beaten 
the record." It is possible he may be so ignorant as 
to believe, even to publish, the last as a fact. In 
a good season the system is also bad for the guide, 
as tending to overstrain. This has undoubtedly led 
to disaster, especially when the brandy " whip " has 
been too freely resorted to. 

Poetess 

The Alpine porter usually begins his career as a lad 
under some relative, father, uncle, or elder brother, 
who is a guide. After a number of years, but not 
usually before he is twenty-four years of age, the 
porter can sit for his guide's examination, and, if at all 
intelligent, is tolerably sure of passing. Some porters 
are as good, or better, climbers than the bulk of the 
guides ; but, as a rule, the loads they have to carry are 
apt to obscure their climbing merits. Their demerit 
is, of course, want of judgment, owing to lack of 
experience. They seldom, however, get the oppor- 
tunity of an independent lead. The porter's pay is 
about half of that of a guide. There are, in places, an 
older class of porter to be met with ; these, as a rule, 
should be avoided, if the proposed expedition is to be 
one of any considerable difficulty. 



98 CENTRES, HOTELS, GUIDES, ETC. 



Huts, Chalets, "Gites," Te^ts, Bivouacs 

In the early days of Alpine climbing the party 
generally spent the night in a chalet built for hay 
storage on the highest pastures. If none of these 
existed high enough, then the gites of chamois-hunters 
or shepherds were utilised. These were holes under 
boulders, or recesses under overhanging rocks near the 
limit of vegetation. Bivouacs in the open were some- 
times made. Tents seem rarely to have been em- 
ployed. 

At the present day, huts are so numerous above 
every Alpine centre that they are almost always used 
when the climb is not done direct from an hotel. The 
other starting-places will be dealt with under "Explora- 
tion." l 

Huts may vary in size and character from a large 
two-storied building with separate bedrooms, wash- 
hand basins, and the usual appurtenances of a small 
rough hotel, to a wooden box-like structure, with merely 
a stove, a table, a bench, and a bunk containing a 
little straw. Every gradation between is found. The 
larger huts are nowadays really hotels, and run on 
the same lines. A common intermediate kind consists 
of three or four rooms, and is in charge of a caretaker. 
For the occupancy, or rather for a very small share of 
this, a moderate fee is paid. Generally in this kind 
of hut some tinned provisions, and also wine, can be 
got. The other class of huts are smaller, usually of 
one room only ; sometimes a ladies' part is partitioned, 
or curtained off. They are either locked, in which case 
the key must be got from its guardian, usually the 
nearest hotel-keeper in the valley below, or else they 
are open. For the use of the last two kinds of hut no 
charge is made. 

There has been a considerable amount of miscon- 
ception, both in their own countries and abroad, as 

1 Chapter XV. 



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HUTS, ETC. 99 

regards, say, the Swiss huts. Nearly all these belong 
to the Swiss Alpine Club. They are, naturally, built 
and equipped, provided with paths of access, and kept 
up with the Club's own money, for the purpose of 
providing accommodation, and facilitating access 
to the Alpine peaks, to the club members and their 
guests. An unauthorised stranger, or party of 
foreigners, has no right whatever to occupy them. 
The Club, however, readily accords a welcome to 
members of foreign Alpine clubs, who grant them simi- 
lar privileges. Undue advantage is often taken of the 
Swiss Alpine Club's huts by parties, usually of non- 
climbers, to the great discomfort and annoyance of 
the Club's members and guests. 

These abuses have led to many discussions in the 
Club, and stringent rules have had to be drawn up to 
abate the nuisance. 

Unfortunately it is much easier to draw up rules 
than to enforce them in these remote places. 

For British climbers' own self-respect, club member- 
ship is quite necessary. ~Ro elaborate qualifications 
are required for this. A proposal by a member, and 
the payment of the subscription, are sufficient. Guided 
climbers are really in the huts as guests of their guides 
in many cases. 

It is a duty lying upon the party of climbers leaving 
one of these huts last, to see that it is left in rather 
better order than when entered. As a rule, this will 
not be found difficult. 

Mr. Dent, writing in Mountaineering in 1892, says : 
" For those who are not afraid of solitude there is a 
great charm to be found in a stay at one of these huts." 
Times have altered. Those who go in August nowa- 
days will find this rather sarcastic ; the " solitude " 
is of much the same nature as that enjoyed by the 
sardine in its tin. 



CHAPTER VIII 

AN ALPINE EXPEDITION 

Two friends, C and B, have resolved upon a season in 
the Alps. Of these, C is an experienced home climber, 
who has also had a couple of seasons mountaineering 
with guides. B is an excellent man on homeland 
hills and rocks, but has not, as yet, had any climbing 
on permanent snows. 

A had somewhat suffered, on his earlier visits, from 
rushing his peaks with a piece-work guide. The friends' 
arrangements allow them four or five days to get into 
condition, and for C to take B to some easy, naked 
glacier, and give him some practice in step-cutting, 
handling his axe generally, and moving on short, safe 
ice-slopes. C has, as yet, insufficient experience to 
justify him in leading a party on the heights. He 
knows an able guide, A, who, having experience of C's 
capacity, is willing to go alone with him and his friend. 

At the end of the training period the friends are 
joined by A. An ascent of a great peak is resolved 
upon. This lies too far off to be done in one day : a 
night must be spent in a small unlocked hut from four 
to four and a half hours' walking (5,000 feet) above 
the hotel. 

A proposes that the party start after lunch on the 
following day. C, however, insists upon an early 
start, soon after breakfast. C's plan is much the best. 
A's would mean a grilling walk, after a probably hearty 
lunch. No time or light would be left, after arrival 
at the hut, for drying up, photography, or prospecting 
the route for the morning. The party might easily 
100 



AN ALPINE EXPEDITION 101 

find the hut stove occupied, and have their last meal, 
which ought to be taken early, thrown back, to the 
serious curtailment of their short night's repose and 
sleep. 

It is, therefore, only nine o'clock next morning when 
they start. In order to save the party's energies for 
the strenuous day to follow, they engage a porter as 
far as the hut. This also allows of a good stock of 
wood being taken. 

The hut, a small unlocked one, is placed on some 
rocks on the left, or far bank, of a naked glacier which 
flows down between their starting-point and the hut. 

The way at first lies through small fields under 
cultivation, then over meadows. It then slopes up 
more steeply, and zig-zags through a large forest of 
pines. These get thinner as the party mount, and 
presently they emerge on the bare upper pastures 
above the tree-limit. They here make a short halt, 
in order to collect dead wood for the hut stove. 

During the ascent A has seemed to B to go very 
slowly, but C will not allow him to be hurried. For 
the loaded porter's sake C has also called a halt every 
hour for five minutes. Presently the hut comes in 
sight, standing on a rocky knoll on the far side of the 
glacier. B suggests they will reach it in ten minutes, 
but A, with a grin, says, " One hour," and he is right. 
It is at first very difficult for the inhabitants of the 
moist and misty isles of Britain to estimate distances 
correctly in the thin, dry, transparent air of glacial 
heights. B might console himself with the knowledge 
that A, on his first visit to British hills, would make as 
wild an estimate, but in the reverse direction. The 
party now comes to a steepish descent leading to the 
glacier. There is a kind of track, however, and they 
do not rope. At its foot is a " bad place " to cross, 
a stretch of unstable moraine. C here puts on old 
leather gloves, and advises that B should do the same. 
This is a wise precaution. Moraine blocks often lie, 
bedded in loose grit, on hard ice concealed below. It 



102 AX ALPINE EXPEDITION 

is sometimes impossible for even the most active and 
vigilant mountaineer to avoid a stumble. Prompt 
use of the ice-axe or of the hands will generally prevent 
a complete fall. Moraine debris, however, has often 
edges like knives : the gloves prevent probable damage 
to the skin. The glacier is now gained. It is here al- 
most flat, but seamed with many transverse crevasses. 
The surface is rather like coarse sugar or salt ; the nails 
bite perfectly. It is quite easy to jump the narrower 
crevasses, and to walk along the strait ice-slices connect- 
ing the larger. 

Near the far side the ice rises in considerable waves. 
Steps are, however, already cut up and down the 
slopes, and no delay is caused. Passing through 
another lateral moraine, the climbers ascend a rocky 
step. This is steep, but steps have been cut in places, 
and iron bars inserted, to which steel cables are at- 
tached : the loaded porter finds these necessary. 

At the top they gain the hut. The guide unfastens 
the door. The porter throws down his load, and. after 
they have all had a meal, the porter says " Au revoir," 
or " Auf wiedersehen," and departs. 

C and B change under-clothes and then stroll, 
with the camera, up a neighbouring rocky point, to 
bask in the sun, and to make the pictures and route 
studies for which neither light nor time will be available 
in the morning. 

The guide, after putting out most of the blankets 
to air, coils himself in the remainder and indulges in a 
good nap. 

As the sun gets low the air becomes chilly. B and C 
return to the hut, to find A busy over the stove pre- 
paring the evening meal, and another party, a guideless 
one of four, awaiting their turn. They finish supper 
just in time to see day passing in the gorgeous and 
exquisite colours of the after-glow. 

It is too cold to remain long outside, and soon 
preparations for next morning and bed are under 
way. 



AN ALPINE EXPEDITION 103 

The afternoon meal at the hut was mainly founded 
on tea, bread and butter and jam, or cake. 

It is better to avoid tea or coffee at the evening 
meal ; a bottle of red wine, mulled with sugar, is a more 
restful drink. 

The meal is fairly substantial : soup ; pea- flour and 
meat extract, to which the guide adds some of his 
favourite grated cheese, meat ; some steak or chicken 
reheated ; tinned articles are a poor substitute for the 
fresh. The dessert may be of tinned fruits if the 
porterage was sufficient. 

It is highly advantageous to list and check all 
articles wanted, and to lay everything out ready for 
the morning, to get out the two lanterns to be used, and 
insert their candles. 

A had suggested 3.30 a.m. as early enough for a 
start. He now whispers that they will start at 3, as 
he has heard the amateurs talking of the former time. 
C, therefore, winds up his alarm-watch, and sets it to 
go off at 2 a.m. An alarm- watch is now a most neat, 
light, and reliable article ; no climbing party should be 
without one. Some people pride themselves on being 
able to waken when they please. I have observed, all 
the same, that an alarm-watch can sometimes catch 
them napping. For less gifted folks, its possession 
tends to the easy conscience conducive to slumber. 
At 8 p.m. all are snugly rolled in the blankets, lights 
are out, and conversation ceases. The older hands 
go to sleep. Sleep is at first rather difficult for the 
novice. The novelty of the surroundings, the subtle 
stimulus of the slightly rarefied air of 10,000 feet, 
thoughts of the climb of the morning — all tend to an 
excited mind not favourable to repose. B does drop 
off at last ; he thhiks it has been only for a few minutes, 
when the shrill, insistent voice of the alarm-watch 
proclaims that is is 2 a.m. 

C and B do not rise for twenty minutes, when A 
comes and tells them breakfast is ready. It is an 
excellent one : bacon and eggs, tea, or coffee made 



104 AN ALPINE EXPEDITION 

over-night, bread and butter, and jam. Not much 
dressing, and no shaving or washing, having to be 
done — it is a great mistake to wash or shave before a 
climb — B and C are soon personally ready. It is sur- 
prising, however, what a lot of time is wanted for final 
arrangements. Perhaps a sack requires turning out, 
to make certain nothing has been forgotten. Perhaps 
the boots were not dubbined over-night. It is never 
safe to allow less than one hour for starting, for a party 
of two. A good rule is to allow five minutes extra 
for everyone over that. 

The party start at 3.5 a.m. exactly. They do not 
rope, but A and C light lanterns and B walks between. 
Descending the rocks where the cables are fixed, and 
passing through the left lateral moraine, they reach 
the ice. Turning right, or south, they walk up the 
glacier for a mile. Dawn has come as they reach a 
part of the glacier where snow begins to lie in the 
hollows. As this snow usually conceals crevasses, the 
party halt to rope up, and lanterns are also extinguished 
and stowed away. They use an 80-foot (25-metre) 
rope, and C also carries an 80-foot length of Alpine 
line, weighing 2 lb. 

The foot of their first difficulty, the ice-fall, is gained 
just as the marvellous glows of last evening are reborn 
on the circling ice-peaks above. 

An ice-fall is a beautiful and impressive sight. The 
glacier is here pouring over a rugged drop in its bed, 
and the ice is torn and shattered in all directions. At 
first in great parallel waves with chasms between, these 
are lower cut across transversely by cracks, clefts, and 
gaps, forming masses more or less rectangular — the 
true serac. Lower still these seracs become wasted into 
pinnacles and fretted towers of ice, often overhanging. 
The cracks and chasms in the lower part of the ice-fall 
are often choked up by fallen masses of serac, and old 
winter or avalanche snow. At the foot of the fall, as 
the angle eases off, the ice gradually smoothens out 
just like a river, and resumes its placider course. 



J 




2S 



US 



CREVASSE, (>Eiyr GLACIER. 



Eric Greenwood. 




Eric On 



WORKING- THROUGH AX ICE-FALL. 



104] 



AN ALPINE EXPEDITION 105 

To B the whole place looks hopeless confusion, and 
quite impossible to pass ; but A, who knows the general 
direction of the best passage, leads the party in that 
direction. Difficult ice-falls are now rarely attacked 
in the Alps. Routes are usually devised to avoid 
them. . Easy ice-falls are still traversed, especially 
on the routes to cols. 

An example of an easy ice-fall, which is often tra- 
versed, is that of the Geant Glacier, above the Mer de 
Glace. The next glacier to the east, the Argentiere, 
gives an example of a difficult ice-fall which is avoided. 

The party enters the ice maze, A always keeiDing 
before his mental eye a general picture of the whole fall, 
zig-zagging about, pressing the attack where the icy 
defences are weakest, but not allowing himself to be 
tempted by an easy opening into a part of the ice-fall 
which he knows to be impossible. 

They come once or twice to an impasse, and are 
forced to retrace their steps a short distance, but are, 
on the whole, working pretty steadily through. The 
best routes generally exist over the debris and on the 
masses of old snow filling the larger clefts. A good 
many steps have to be cut, B and C have opportunities 
of cutting and enlarging steps for themselves. Oc- 
casionally actual tunnels must be crawled through, 
and the party several times pass under the leaning 
pinnacles of towering seracs. The day is young ; the 
sun is as yet only gilding the high crests. Frost 
reigns, and the risk of anything falling is very slight. 

Old Alpine travellers used to relate how the guides, 
in passing close to a place where possible danger 
existed from over-threatening seracs, would solemnly 
insist on not a word being spoken, lest the reverbera- 
tions might bring down upon their heads one of the 
impending masses. 

For my part, I think the material explanation they 
gave for the guides' fear was an incorrect one. They 
failed to see into the men's superstitious fear. The 
guides' underlying dread was of the anger of the evil 



106 AN ALPINE EXPEDITION 

spirits that they still more than half believed to lurk 
in all the waste places of the mountains, and who 
resented, sometimes with deadly effect, the intrusion 
of mortal men. 

At length the party win through the fall, and emerge 
upon the natter but still crevassed glacier above. 

Now it is full day, and the sun begins to shine upon 
the upper snows with power. The party halts to put 
on goggles. Before doing so the opportunity is taken 
of covering that part of their faces devoid of the natural 
protective covering of the male with a well-spread 
coating of " Pomade Sechehaye." 

The crevasses are here mostly covered, the party 
keep twenty feet apart, carrying the loose rope in 
a coil in their left hand, and letting none drag. It 
does not always follow that, because A has sounded 
and safely stepped upon a crevasse covering, that B 
will certainly be all right if he uses his exact footsteps. 
He may be a stone heavier than A ; he may walk in 
a much clumsier manner. He should always expect 
to go through. He will then have usually the pleasant 
surprise of not doing so. 

At this time and place there is really very little 
risk of anyone breaking through, and in pioneer days 
few guides would have troubled to rope at all. It is 
best, however, to put on the rope. The very fact of 
doing so keeps the inexpert, and novices, in mind of 
the possible risk. They watch out and do not fall in. 
Nothing seemed commoner in old days than tumbling 
into a crevasse ; now, this rarely happens in summer. 

After about another half a mile has been covered, 
the glacier merges in the upper neves. A now turns 
to the right, north-west, and makes for a steep slope 
leading up to a rock ridge, the north-east, which rises 
steeply above to the summit of their peak. 

The lower part of this slope is of snow ; towards the 
summit the greyish colour and glistening appearance, 
betray the presence of ice. At the foot of the snow- 
slope, just where it eases into the glacier, runs a long 



AX ALPIXE EXPEDITION 107 

chasm in the ice. the bergschrund, randHuft, or 
rimaye. It is mostly open, and of great depth, forming 
an impregnable moat defending access to the heights. 
A slight concavity in the slope above has, however, 
directed the sliding masses of spring avalanche snow. 
These have ponred down filling the schrund in the line 
of their fall. Summer, and the heated rocks, have 
melted the bulk of the fallen snow ; but a hardened 
crust still exists, forming c bridge spanning the 
chasm. 

A leads the party to the bridge. It is. on testing, 
thin, but strong. The party, nevertheless, crawl up 
it on all fours, in turn, distributing their weight still 
further by using the axes laid flat, in order to damage 
it as little as possible for the return. When clear of the 
bridge, A slashes steps rapidly in good snow for several 
hundred feet. The snow then begins to thin out, and, 
as the angle rises from 45°, the angle of the snow- slope, 
to 50°, it turns to ice. While this ice is not at all 
" black " ice — it still contains far too much air for that — 
it is nevertheless real ice, and not neve. Steps must 
be cut by the pick. A does this in zigzags. Had the 
distance to the rocks been less, and the angle steeper, 
straight up would have been quicker. 

Some continental climbers have maintained that it 
is better to cut steps straight up. There are a number 
of arguments in favour of this method. Far fewer 
steps are required, and it is also easier for a higher 
climber to safeguard and assist a follower who stands 
in steps directly below him. Against this may be 
put the inconvenience of the ice-chips, or snow, falling 
on the lower climbers : but this is of no great moment 
if the party keep close together. 

There are. however, other reasons in favour of the 
zigzag method, and. after having experimented with 
every possible kind of ice-step, I consider that, as a 
general rule, zigzags should be adopted on ice. 

(1) It is very much easier to cut good steps in ice. 
in zipfzag. Much of the swing is lost when cutting 



108 AN ALPINE EXPEDITION 

straight up ; the steps themselves must be deeper, 
and even then do not give so good a hold. 

(2) It is not nearly so tiring to stand or walk in 
the zigzag steps ; one can do this for hours. On the 
ladder ice-steps, unless very deeply cut, cramp is liable 
to come on. 

(3) The " moral " effect upon the novice is bad on 
the ladder system ; his feet being partly in the air, 
he has a tendency to try to get a hold on the ice in 
front of him, thus to lean forward, and abandon the 
safe attitude, the upright. 

On short, steep ice- walls, where the angle is over 
60°, and hand-holds have to be cut, then the ladder 
method is, of course, the best. On snow the mode is 
of less importance ; but even here, as on steep grass 
slopes or easy rocks, zigzags generally pay best. 

Had B been timid, weak, or with bad balance — he 
has shown A that he was none of these — it would have 
been better, assuming that B was taken on such a place 
at all, for the order to have been A, C, B. 

C could in that case have watched over B, while A 
devoted undivided attention to the steps. It is not 
very difficult, and the steeper it is — up to 60°, at any 
rate — the easier it is, to stop a man who slips from ice- 
steps below one. It is almost impossible to stop any- 
one who falls from even a little way above. It follows 
from this, that no one except an expert ice-man should 
ever be allowed to lead up, or follow down, a roped 
party on a steep ice-slope. 

Changing leaders on a steep ice-slope has been some- 
times written of, but I think rarely done. I think the 
only case where this would be safe, and pay, is where a 
traveller who cannot cut steps is conducted by two 
first-rate guides of equal step-cutting ability. Pro- 
bably, in most of the noted cases, the slope was really 
only hard snow, and not steep. Changing is best done 
on a rock island, or patch of snow, if the slope is of ice. 

On our typical climb no changing is done ; neither 
C nor B are expert ice-men. A works away steadily, 



AN ALPINE EXPEDITION 109 

and, after an hour's hard work, reaches the rocks of 
the north-east arete for which the party has been 
steering. 

None are sorry, after the heavy strain of an hour on 
an ice- slope at an angle of 50°, to enjoy a short rest on 
sun-warmed rocks with glorious views on both sides. 

They then follow the ridge ; the climbing is varied 
and interesting, without being very difficult. 

Sometimes, in rounding gendarmes, A will get out 
of sight of B. The latter then takes a hitch, and waits 
for instructions. He must not allow his curiosity as 
to how A is getting on, to tempt him into a position 
where he cannot secure the rope. C may sometimes 
come close to, back up and secure B. 

Presently they arrive at the foot of a great gendarme. 
This is cleft by a chimney about sixty feet high, finish- 
ing in slabs. Down it hangs a somewhat bleached- 
looking rope. A avoids this, and B, coming off the 
rope, A climbs up some very steep and difficult rocks 
on the left, looking up, of the chimney. He tells B to 
come up that way, but first to test the rope. B does 
so, and it bears his weight all right. C, however, is 
not satisfied, so both tail on and give the rope a good 
jerk. It at once parts where the iron pit on to which 
it is attached above has rusted it. 

The question of the ro}Ding of peaks is a very vexed 
one ; it belongs, perhaps, more to the ethics of moun- 
taineering than to the technics. It will be dealt with 
under that heading. 1 

A's route was very difficult : he had to leave both his 
axe and sack below. Everything must now be brought 
up separately. C, therefore, first sends up the ice-axes. 
This he does safely by bundling them together and 
putting them on the rope with two clove-hitches round 
the shafts, near the heads and spikes. 

To guide them on their way up, and prevent them 
from catching in any projecting rocks, he bends on the 
light line below the parcel, with a bowline, or a sheet- 

1 See Chapter XI. 



110 AN ALPINE EXPEDITION 

bend. A basket of eggs can be hoisted safely in this 
manner, if the A and C of the party are careful about 
working together, and the rocks are nearly or quite 
vertical. The sacks are now sent up, next B climbs, 
and the rope is finally lowered for C. He manages 
without any actual hauling, but is not sorry to have the 
moral aid and comfort of a rope held in able and 
powerful hands above. It ma}^ be thought that it 
would save time here for C to climb, carrying the axes, 
taking assistance from the rope. Usually it will be 
found preferable to work in the manner described. 
It is not an easy or comfortable business climbing steep 
rocks burdened with a bundle of restless, inquisitive 
axes, which will insist on sticking their long noses into 
places they have no call to : if C does bring them up, 
let us hope that A and B will have the decency to 
praise him for his neatness and desjDatch, even though 
this savours of diplomacy, and not of truth. 

The far side of the so-called gendarme is an almost 
level snow ridge. Like most gendarmes on an ascend- 
ing ridge, it is really a step. The ridge beyond is of 
ice covered with snow. It is, while very steep on the 
north-west side, composed on the south-east of a huge 
cornice impending over an almost vertical-looking 
slope, of mixed rock, ice, and snow. 

The party have a good view of this side, and can see 
pretty clearly how much and where the cornice projects. 
Great masses jut out here and there, with overhangs 
in places of twenty feet, and obviously weighing many 
hundreds of tons. The climbers proceed along it at 
the full intervals of the rope, and well down the slope 
on their right, or north-west, side. 

Where the snow is too hard to kick or slash steps 
A must cut them. He probes with the axe, and 
endeavours always to have two men, at least, below 
the line of possible fracture. 

The probable line of fracture is often to be known 
by incipient cracks, which may again be filled by softer 
snow. The terrors of the cornice bulk largely in 



*ik ^P 





AN ALPINE EXPEDITION 111 

Alpine story, and many wholesale disasters have hap- 
pened to parties recklessly, or ignorantly, venturing 
too far up on them. There is, however, no excuse for 
guides or climbers who do this. Cornices are the very 
commonest of Alpine phenomena. They are to be 
expected on the summit of every exposed ridge, at 
the top of every steep couloir or gully, and also at the 
precipitous edge of broad, rounded ridges and plateaux. 

No party should simultaneously approach the edge 
of such places. The leader, well secured from behind, 
should always go forward to prospect. 

Some marvellous escapes are recounted, owing to 
the quickness and presence of mind of a guide, who has 
cast himself down the opposite slope to that of the 
falling cornice, and thus brought up and anchored the 
others, who were falling with it. 

A friend of mine has told me of a wonderful escape 
experienced while making the ascent of a very heavily 
corniced north-east ridge. At one moment he was 
making his way along a very steep snow-slope which 
towered above, shutting out all view on that side. Next 
instant he was balancing himself on an arete of ice, 
on one foot, the other poised over vacancy, while a 
vast panorama of clouds, snow-peaks, glaciers, and 
wooded valleys was spread before his gaze. 

In this case the leading guide was at fault ; he had 
gone too high up on the cornice, and his weight proved 
the last straw. He just managed to scramble off the 
cornice as the ponderous mass fell. 

Sometimes there is no cornice, the opposing snow- 
slopes meet in an edge only an inch or so wide. This, 
though really safer than the cornice, is often very 
trying to the novice. 

In old narratives, parties seem generally to have 
crossed such places a cheval. This is slow, thing, wet, 
and undignified. If the ridge is of snow it is, for 
mountaineers, better and quicker to walk. The leader, 
in this case, is let out to the full length of the rope, if 
thus he can reach a place of security. He may either 



112 AN ALPINE EXPEDITION 

flatten down the edge with the axe, or make steps on 
either side. If the ridge is of really hard ice, where 
steps would cost a deal of hard labour to cut, it may 
pay to straddle it and hoist oneself along with the 
hands. Such places are rare. Our party is not re- 
duced to that here, as there is enough good snow, kept 
so by a cool northerly air, to make step-kicking safe 
and easy. The position is new to B, and he does not 
quite like it ; but he sees A walking with ease and 
confidence, he knows his friend C is watching the rope 
carefully behind him, he makes up his mind he will 
not be giddy, and he is not. 

At the end of the sharp snow arete the ridge again 
shoots up into the steep rocks of the final peak. There 
is a certain amount of ice on these high rocks, great 
care, and some cutting, is required. At the top of 
an ice-chimne}^, where B had begun to think that A was 
cutting steps too small and far apart for a last man's 
safe descent, there is found a strong piton of iron driven 
into the rock. The chimney proves the last difficulty. 
Above it they walk up an easily sloping arete of snow 
and rock to the summit cairn. 

Here they spend an hour in lunching, in photography, 
in admiration of the wide views and exquisitely beauti- 
ful scenery of their surroundings, and in well-earned 
repose in the warmth to be found a few feet down on 
the south side. The guide probably, after his meal, 
drink, and pipe, stretches himself out and goes to 
sleep at once. He has had some long expeditions 
during the past week. If he did not possess the 
faculty of sleeping at once and anywhere, he would 
not be able to keep in the good condition he now is. 

After the summit hour, which passes only too 
quickly, wakes up the guide ; they start downward, 
re-roped again, in the reverse order to the ascent. At 
the top of the ice-chimney A lays the rope over the 
piton — he does not belay it — as C and B descend. He 
is now carrying the spare line. When his turn comes 
he lays the middle of this over the piton and walks 




Eric Greenwood. 



SUMMIT OF THE DISGRAZIA. 



112] 



AX ALPINE EXPEDITION 113 

down the top forty feet, the worst part, with perfect 
ease and safety, holding the line in his hands. 

Whatever may be urged against the roping of peaks, 
there can be nothing to say against using a piton to 
safeguard the party on the descent. 

Sometimes rope-rings are left at difficult places. 



PlTONS. 

These avoid risk of the rope jamming over natural 
hitches. They ought, of course, to be most carefully 
examined and tested before trusted. Like the fixed 
rope in our expedition, they may be rotten. Nothing 
is more irritating and tiring, for a last man, than to 
have to swing up a steep place to release a rope which 
has jammed. Therefore natural pitons and hitches 
require most careful testing. If a hitched rope will 
not come off when the last man is down, and it is too 
difficult and exhausting to re-ascend the pitch, then 
it should be cut as far up as possible. It is as well for 
guideless parties to remember, that if they see a loose 
end of roj^e hanging at the top of a difficulty, it pro- 
bably points to a wrong route, or one only used on the 
descent. 

When a natural piton or rock-spike is used for a 
descent, particular care must be taken for the first 
part : once the weight is well below, a very slight pro- 
jection will hold the rope securely. Sometimes, as, for 
instance, on the descent of the south side of the gen- 
darme on the Grepon, it is necessary, from the nature 
of the hitch, for the last man to grasp the two ends of 
the rope separately in each hand and to move down 
very carefully and evenly, to prevent the rope rolling 
off. The slipping of a rope from a hitch, when the 
climber was retreating from a difficult position, was the 
cause of the death of the famous Austrian mountain- 



114 AN ALPIXE EXPEDITION 

eer, Dr. Emil Zsigmondy, on the south wall of the 
Meije. 

Our party is soon all down, and, with the aid of the 
steps already kicked or cut, pass along the ice aretes 
and skirt the cornices in much less time than they 
occupied on the ascent. At the " broken rope " 
chimney, after letting down C and B separately. A 
ties the two ropes together with a fisherman's bend — 
it should be noted that a reef-knot, with ropes of 
different thicknesses, is not a holding knot — then 
comes down the whole sixty feet safely and easily 
himself. 

On the way down the rock aretes. C does the path- 
finding quickly and well. It is seldom necessary for 
A to come forward and halt the party while he points 
it out. The necessity of an amateur leading down, 
with another amateur above him, is what constitutes 
the real objection of a guide to conduct two amateurs. 
He can do so with no loss of time on the ascent, but, 
unless the amateur is experienced, or the ascent stereo- 
typed and well " blazed,*' much time is certain to be 
lost on the descent. An exaggerated idea of the 
relative difficulty and time involved in a descent on 
somewhat complicated rock-peaks used to prevail, 
and to a certain extent does so still. This idea is to 
be found in the Alpine narratives of descents with 
parties consisting of two guides and two amateurs, 
in which the amateur has led down. In reality, for 
the skilled mountaineer, the descent is both easier and 
quicker, and much safer also if he uses a rope. 

The descent of the ice-slope is somewhat trying, 
and is conducted with the greatest care. The steps 
are yet in good condition ; C has only an occasional 
scrape to make. The time occupied is, of course, a 
mere fraction of that needed in the morning. The 
party descend in less than ten minutes what cost an 
hour's hard labour to ascend. When they reach the 
snow, however, it is a little inclined to slide where 
they walked easily in the morning, and C has a good 







MIST ON A GLACIER. 
" Is it lifting ? " 



Harold Each urn. 




Harold Raeburn. 
ON THE GLACIER DE LA MEIJE. STEEP ICE. 



114] 



AN ALPINE EXPEDITION 115 

half-hour's heavy work before it is considered safe for 
all the party to again move together. 

As they approach the bridge across the schrund, one 
or two tiny snow-avalanches slide down the hollow 
above and sweep across it. A decides it is better not 
to risk crossing in that line. He has, on the way up, 
noted an alternative route of descent, in case the bridge 
had weakened or fallen in. The party " 'bout ship," 
and steer 100 yards north-east along above the schrund. 
Here a slight ice-promontory hangs right over the 
chasm and overlaps its lower lip. They establish them- 
selves on this as near the edge as possible. C is then 
put on with a bowline on a bight and lowered over. He 
lands safely, and shouts up that it is only ten feet, with a 
good snow landing. B, who is a good vaulter, volunteers 
to come down last and jump it. Two axes are now 
lowered to C. The third is inserted in a convenient 
crack, and the spare cord looped over it. A can then 
come down easily in a single loop, B taking half his 
weight off him. B then sends down the last axe, comes 
as near the edge as possible, and prepares to jump. 
The others stand clear, and prepare to field him should 
he, on alighting, slither down the snow-slope or tumble 
back into the schrund. B does neither : he drops 
lightly and neatly in the soft snow, and is not in the 
least shaken. 

A short standing glissade is now possible, and is 
indulged in for practice. Roped glissading is, however, 
very much of an experts' game, and is seldom satis- 
factory. All are jerked off their feet in turn, even the 
guide. 

The descent over the upper glacier, and through the 
ice-fall, needs more care and circumspection than in the 
morning. One or other puts a foot through the softened 
snow covering a narrow crevasse. It is rare, however, 
that putting a foot through goes'" any farther. Had 
the crust been really weak, and the crack of any width, 
probably both feet would have gone through at once. 
A swinging forward of the other foot, and a slight 



116 AN ALPINE EXPEDITION 

pull on the rope, will usually prevent any but a 
momentary check on the party's steady progress. 

They delay as little as possible when passing below 
the over-hanging seracs, and are able to avoid the worst 
of these by taking a slightly different route, involving 
a jump down of about six feet over a crevasse, quite 
impossible on the ascent. 

Through the fall, they still keep on the rope until 
the moraine is reached, when it is taken off gladly by 
all and carefully coiled. The climb has gone well. No 
unforeseen delays have occurred, they have, on reaching 
the hut, an hour to spend over the making and consum- 
ing of a very welcome afternoon tea. They then tidy 
up the hut, pack the reduced loads, and, after the guide 
has closed their last night's quarters, they leisurely 
descend in the cool of the evening to their hotel, where 
they arrive in j)lenty of time for a bath and shave before 
dinner is served, highly delighted, and not over-tired 
after their long and strenuous day. 



SECTION IV 

FOR THE LADY MOUNTAINEER 



117 



CHAPTER IX 

CLIMBING 

Mountaineering, like swimming, skating, and the 
now very popular winter sport of ski-running, seems 
to be eminently suitable for women, and they are 
taking to the rocks and the snows in ever-increasing 
numbers. The notes and advice contained in the rest 
of this volume are equally addressed to climbers of 
both sexes. In this chapter I give some suggestions 
which may be of special service to the girl or woman 
beginner. These are derived from a long and extensive 
experience of the aims and abilities, the wants and ways 
of the feminine mountaineer, from seven to umpty 
years of age. 

A special section on dress is contributed by Miss 
Ruth Raeburn, President of the Ladies' Scottish 
Climbing Club. 

The feminine mountaineer is by no means a modern 
phenomenon. France, a country always so rich in 
initiative, gives us the first instance of a woman taking 
up mountaineering as a sporting adventure. This 
lady was a Mile D'Angeville. 

'A short biography of her has been published by 
Mile Mary Paillon, of the French Alpine Club, also of 
the Ladies' Alpine Club of London. 

Mile D'Angeville, of an old Norman family, De 
Beaumont, was born in 1794, during the Terror. She 
made the ascent of Mont Blanc in 1832. It is true 
that, in 1829, a girl of Chamonix named Marie Paradis 
accompanied a party of guides to the summit. To this 
girl, therefore, belongs the honour of being the pioneer 
of her sex on the highest peak of the AlpSi 
119 



120 CLIMBING 

Earlier still, in 1822, two Scottish ladies, Mrs. and 
Miss Campbell, crossed the Col du Geant. 

Mile D'Angeville was detained at Geneva for a 
week owing to bad weather. She thus describes her 
feelings while enduring this forced wait : " Le cceur 
me battait violemment. . . . Je me sentais une envie 
si ardente d'escalader qu'elle imprimait un mouvement 
a mes pieds." 

She had six guides and six porters, and, as was the 
fashion in those days, carried (for them) a prodigious 
quantity of food and drink. She herself, however, 
ate almost nothing the three days of the ascent and 
descent. She describes her clothing most minutely ; 
it would be considered far too heavy nowadays. She 
suffered somewhat from the " reverberations " of the 
snow, but, the day after her return, felt extraordinarily 
invigorated, and " twenty years younger." Like so 
many thousands since, she discovered that the secret 
of eternal youth, so far as it can be discovered on this 
earth, has been found by the Alpine climber. This 
lady proved this again, many years later, by ascending 
the Oldenhorn when sixty-nine years young. 

The feminine pioneers on the Matterhorn were, on 
the Italian side, a daughter of the guide, J. B. Carrel, 
who accompanied her father and two other guides 
"to within 350 feet of the top," in 1867, and, on the 
Zermatt side, Miss Lucy Walker, sister of Mr. Horace 
Walker, who gained the Swiss summit in 1870. 

Mrs. Le Blond has been the pioneer in winter climbing 
in Switzerland, as well as making new ascents in 
Norway. 

Mrs. F. Bullock Workman has done far more high 
climbing and exploring than any other woman climber. 
Her record ascent, of Mer in the Himalayas, 22,742 feet, 
has been exceeded only by a very few men. In the 
Americas, Miss Dora Keen in the northern continent, 
Miss Annie Peck in the southern, have conquered great 
and new peaks. Recently we have a book by an 
Australian lady, Miss Freda Du Faur, dealing with New 



LADIES 5 CLIMBING CLUBS 121 

Zealand climbing. Though a comparative novice, 
Miss Du Faur's beautifully illustrated and charmingly 
written volume proves her to possess the soul of a 
true mountaineer. 

Many of the Continental, American, and Canadian 
Alpine Clubs admit ladies to membership, as does the 
Fell and Rock Club of the English Lake district. Most 
of the large continental clubs are, however, really 
tourist associations, and climbing qualifications are 
not required. 

The first purely feminine mountaineering club was 
founded in London in 1907, under the title of the Ladies' 
Alpine Club. The Ladies' Scottish Climbing Club, 
more especially for the home mountains, was founded 
next year, 1908, in Edinburgh. Every year sees a 
larger number of the lady members of the Fell and 
Rock Club of Lakeland. 

If we take two absolute novices on rocks, say a youth 
of twenty and a girl of the same age, we shall usually 
find that the girl is quicker at picking up right methods, 
and is safer at first than the boy. 

The girl's advantages in learning safe rock-climbing 
are three in number : 

(a) She has smaller feet. 

(6) Lower centre of gravity. 

(c) Relatively to weight, much less powerful hands 
and arms. 

The last is the most important. Realising her 
weakness in this respect, the girl will pay all the more 
attention to footholds. A and B will assist her in 
finding these, and in keeping her balance on them when 
found. C is, however, a heavy handicap on long, hard 
climbs. Especially important is it, therefore, for the 
girl climber to save her hands' and arms' strength as 
much as possible. In holding on to rocks, it is not as 
grippers, but as anchors, that the hands should be 
employed. It is far safer and much less fatiguing, 
even on footholds only an inch or two in width, to hold 



122 CLIMBING 

the body vertical, pushing out from the slope, if very 
steep, than to crouch against it, holding on tightly 
with bent arms. Only when actually pulling up 
should the grip be firm. Everyone who has used 
parallel bars will know how much easier it is to support 
the weight of the body when the arms are straight 
than when they are flexed. It is, therefore, important 
to get out of the flexed position as soon as possible. 

The arms should not be held above the head a 
moment longer than is necessary. In this position 
the blood is apt to leave the fingers and hands, making 
them chilly and uncertain. 

In moving up from one position to another on a 
rock-face, it is a mistake to select the highest hold within 
reach and haul the body up by it. Rather the lowest 
possible should be used, and the press-down method 
employed. The weight should be pushed up, and the 
arms used as much like the legs as possible. 

Good, safe climbing, on long, hard climbs is very 
largely a matter of hip and shoulder work ; it is, there- 
fore, important that clothing be worn which interferes 
with the action of these muscles as little as possible. 
It will be found that the lady prefers, and is better 
suited for, open face and arete climbs, even of the 
airiest, than narrow cracks and chimneys. The former 
is really finer climbing, and is less dependent upon 
mere strength. When narrow chimneys have to be 
ascended or descended, the rule there is," Keep as far 
out as possible." It is often tempting, and looks 
safer, to keep as far in as possible. This makes the 
work far harder, and will assuredly lead to jamming. 

In learning the correct attitude to assume on steep 
rock climbs it is as well to avail oneself, at first, of 
the assistance of the rope held from above. This 
should not be pulled hard, however, as this prevents 
the safety of the footholds from being realised. 

Should the novice or lady climber, in the course of 
the expedition, arrive at a pitch which is obviously 
beyond her unaided powers, it is not fair to herself, 



FOR THE XOVICE 123 

and not kind to the others, to waste her strength, and 
the party's time, in futile efforts to get up without 
some slight assistance from the rope. At the same 
time, it must be most exasperating, just as she has 
got good holds and is coming on nicely, to be jerked 
off them and her feet by the " yanking " guide, or, 
worse, by the amateur. The guide who does that is 
a stupid ass, the amateur is probably, in addition, a 
shower-off whose conceit is far in excess of his ability. 
He will probably be unsafe, and pretty certain to come 
to grief himself sooner or later, because thoughtless 
and inconsiderate of others. The "yanker," whether 
guide or amateur, should never be given a second chance 
of leading a lady climber thus treated. 

Every lady mountaineer should carry a small 
rucksack on a long expedition. The satchel sometimes 
recommended is a nuisance ; it swings round and gets 
in the way just at the wrong moments. The sack 
is not in the way, does not interfere with the balance, 
and in itself need weigh not more than a few ounces. 
It will be found an immense convenience to have any 
small articles of personal use where they are at once 
available. The pockets of the climbing-suit will 
usually be quite inadequate for these. 

The young lady beginner at mountaineering, and 
even some who are not beginners and ought to know 
better, seem peculiarly apt to commit the error of 
commencing the climb at too fast a pace. Of course 
this is a youthful failing, and those who are physically 
and mentally active find it hard to remember that 
there is a long, long way to go, and that the race is 
not always to the swift at the start. This error is one 
of the chief causes of " mountain sickness " and 
failure on long expeditions. It is less likely to be 
allowed if the lady is with guides. It is only the young 
and foolish guide who permits himself to be hurried 
for the first few hours. If allowed, it is almost certain 
to spoil the climb for the lady climber, and for the 
party, if she is with others. 



124 CLIMBING 

A method sometimes adopted with the girl novice 
in the Alps is calculated to quench any budding climb- 
ing ambitions she may possess. For some mysterious 
reason, a long and fatiguing snow-grind is considered 
as a suitable " easy day for a lady." The girl starts 
for this, led by the usual mechanical "piece-work" 
guide. The peak is high, if easy, and she has little 
or no previous training. She has passed the previous 
night in a dirty, noisy, crowded hut, and naturally 
has not slept. On the ascent she has no time to see 
anything, except the guide's boots and the holes in 
the snow made by these. She wants to stop, he does 
not ; growls " Avalanches," and on they go. On the 
top she has a splitting headache, and cannot eat. 
This is, of course, the " mountain sickness " of the 
ancient Alpine wiseacres. It is, in fact, nothing but 
want of training, want of sleep, and ascending too 
fast. They descend in even softer snow, the girl very 
done, but too plucky to acknowledge it. Her face 
has, most likely, been insufficiently protected. Result : 
another sleepless night, suffering severe pain, and next 
morning she is a repulsive object, cannot go out without 
a veil, and prefers to take her meals alone. In addition 
she is probably feeling the effects upon her feet of the 
thick, heavy, clumsy boots which she has worn with 
only one pair of stockings. No wonder she thinks, 
" Le jeu ne vallait pas la chandelle." 

Let me assure the doubting, scared by the spectacle 
of one of these victims, that there is no need to get 
"mountain sickness," no occasion to achieve blisters, 
and not the slightest necessity to have thrust upon 
her the blushing and painful distinction of " glacier 
face." From under a thin, well- applied coating of 
"Pomade Sechehaye " her face will emerge, on the 
evening of a day spent upon the snows, as fresh as when 
she started in the morning. A few drops of olive-oil 
renders the pomade easily washed off. If her boots 
have thin, well-fitting uppers, are moderate in weight, 
properly designed, and she wears double foot- coverings, 



FOR THE NOVICE 125 

her feet will keep free from blisters. As regards boots. 
while there is no necessity for a woman climber to 
wear the big and clumsy boots often offered her. the 
boots must be strong. Xeither heels nor welts should 
project ; but it is especially to be noted that on no 
account should boots be worn with heels which slope 
inwards : these are bad and dangerous. The heels, 
therefore, should be straight, fairly low. and like a 
man's. 

The majority of people will be entirely free from 
mountain sickness — up to heights, at any rate, which 
exist in the Alps — if they are in good health, begin 
gradually, and do not over-fatigue themselves. A 
mixed rock and snow ascent is much less fatiguing 
than a simple snow-grind. On the rocks there are 
frequent halts, and a far greater variety of muscles are 
employed. The distribution of effort, and, even more 
important,, the greater interest and variety of such a 
climb, with its effect upon the mind, leads to a corre- 
sponding diminution of fatigue. 

The average lady mountaineer should not attempt 
to carry a man's axe. Her weapon need not be a toy, 
however, but much like the axe described in the chapter 
on "Equipment,'' somewhat lighter in the shaft and 
head, and proportioned to the bearers' height. Excel- 
lent ladies' axes can be bought in most large Alpine 
climbing centres. 

It is greatly to be recommended to the girl novice. 
and to all novices, to practise " bouldering : ' as much 
as possible, and for the girl, to select these boulder 
climbs, where activity and balance are of greater value 
than muscular strength and arm-pulls. She will there, 
often be able to show a more experienced and much 
more powerful man, how a short piece of difficult rock 
can be climbed with ease and grace. Unless the climb 
is under ten feet in height, with a good turf landing, the 
rope should always be put on. Below that height no 
injury should occur to any young person who takes care 
to alight a la chat, on feet and hands at the same time. 



126 CLIMBING 

Bouldering is reputed to be bad for the skin. Gloves 
should always be worn. These ought to be thin and 
easy, without being loose. The shins may be protected 
by puttees. Unless the knickers have double knees, 
it is as well to tie on protectors, both for the sake of 
the knees and of the knickers. These can be made of 
a couple of large handkerchiefs or old scarves. With 
gloves, puttees, and knee-pads on, an hour's hard 
boulder practice should not result in the smallest 
damage to the tenderest skin. Bouldering is of great 
use in teaching what small holds can be employed with 
safety — at a pinch — on great climbs. It has also a 
wonderful effect in improving the balance, and in teach- 
ing the correct attitudes to assume, and efforts to make, 
on various kinds of holds. On a single fifteen-foot 
boulder one may find a series of climbs containing all 
the characteristic difficulties one will encounter in a 
whole day's climb on a great rock-peak. 

In bringing this short section to a close I would say to 
the feminine mountaineer, and in fact to all would-be 
mountaineers, do not wait till you go to the Alps to 
learn at least the elements of the art. Moderate rock- 
climbing is the finest exercise in the world ; there is not 
a muscle it does not exercise. It is carried out in the 
world's finest scener} 7 . Hill- walking is next best to 
rock-climbing, and the lovely airs and scenic glories 
of our own native hills are well worth knowing in- 
timately. If you are a good dancer, skater, or ski- 
runner, balance will come easily to you. When you 
do go to the Alps, do not rush the climbing. Be very 
careful of your companions, whether guides or amateurs. 
Do not go a long expedition, unless you know your 
leader is able and experienced. Remember that, 
however good a leader may be on British rocks, if 
without Alpine experience, he is quite unfit to lead 
a guideless party on the snow-peaks. 




LADIES* CLIMBING COSTUME. 



CHAPTER X 



By Ruth Raebtirn 

Is considering clothing from a mountaineering point 
of view, special attention must be given to lightness 
and warmth. It is better to take extra wraps, which 
can be used when required, than to burden one'- self 
at the start with too many heavy clothe-. It is 
hardly necessary to say. in this enlightened age. that 
all garments must be loose. The modern athletic 
girl does not need to be told that the ordinary corset 
is undesirable. She has found that out for herself. 
and is more apt to go to the opposite extreme, and 
dispense with it altogether. There is moderation in 
ail things, however, and many women will find that 
a corset bodice of pliable material, and without bones, 
gives a certain amount of support to the body, and is 
quite suitable for climbing. On the scientific principle 
that air between the clothing and the body conduces 
to both coolness and warmth, it is desirable to wear 
two suits of fairly thin woollen combinations rather 
than one thick one. 

The costume usually adopted by women climbers is 
a coat and skirt, flannel blouse, and knickerbockers. 
The coat should be of a strong, thick, closely woven 
material, and one which sheds the water readily. It 
should be made as nearly as possible like a man's coat, 
straight-fronted and double-breasted. It should have 
outside pockets with flaps to button, and small in- 
side pockets. It should also fit very loosely, so that a 
jersey may be worn without discomfort beneath it. 



128 DRESS 

Here it is perhaps not unnecessary to add a warning 
about the arm-holes, which must be made particularly 
easy, so as to allow free play for the arms. Lastly, it 
should be lined with Jaeger flannel, which is delight- 
fully warm and light, and does not shrink when wet. 
The knickerbockers, of the same material as the coat, 
should be made by a first-class tailor, and care should 
be taken that he does not make them too tight, which 
he is liable to do in his praiseworthy effort to achieve 
a smart effect. In this case, however, the garments 
are wanted for use and hard work, rather than for 
ornament, and all attempts to smarten them at the 
expense of the wearer's comfort and safety must be 
sternly repressed. A short, unlined skirt of some 
lighter material, which can be conveniently stowed in 
a rucksack, completes the outer covering of the body. 

The head should be well protected, and to ensure this 
a felt hat, which can be pulled down over the ears, is 
considered better than a woollen cap. The latter 
absorbs moisture, does not keep out the wind, does not 
shed the rain, and does not offer sufficient protection 
against the sun. 

Many beginners suffer considerably from blistered 
feet, and even look upon the condition as inevitable ; 
but this is not so, for by taking a few simple precautions 
the worst results can usually be avoided. To begin 
with, the boots are all-important to a climber, and 
these should be sufficiently large to allow of a pair of 
socks being worn over the stockings. A boy's sock 
of 9 or 9 1 inches usually fits the average woman's foot. 
Here, again, we have a layer of air between the sock 
and the stocking, and by this means the feet are kept 
warmer, while there is less friction on them, as the two 
thicknesses of wool rub against each other. It is 
a mistake to wear very heavy boots, in the hope that 
they will keep out the wet. No boot really keeps out 
the wet when subjected to prolonged soaking, such as 
climbers have so often to face ; so it is better to have a 
light, comfortable boot, which makes no pretence of 



DRESS 129 

doing so. The welt should not project a hair's-breadth, 
as to do so is dangerous, and might cause an accident 
when everything depends on nicety of balance on an 
almost invisible foothold. 

A rucksack is indispensable for every climber, but 
this should be of a strictly moderate size, and contain 
only the bare necessities of climbing life, such as spare 
jersey, extra pair of warm gloves, handkerchief, muffler 
when not being worn, collapsible leather drinking- cup, 
compass, and map. 

It is the aim of the writer of these pages to give only 
a few general suggestions, all of which have been tried 
and found useful, but everyone has a more or less 
individual taste in matters of dress, and will probably 
follow their own ideas to a great extent. Experience 
alone can teach the climber just what to take, and what 
to leave behind. Conditions themselves are so variable 
that no definite rules can be laid down for the complete 
guidance of climbers. 

The celebrated Erench alpuiiste, Mile Mary Paillon. 
writes : " Abandon everything which is not absolutely 
essential, for comfort in climbing depends upon feeling 
oneself light and mobile**; and that is probably the 
best advice that anyone can give. 

To those who have once felt the attraction of the 
mountains, no better sport than climbing can offer 
itself. It is at once a revelation and a realisation ; 
undreamed-of possibilities unfold themselves, and with 
every step upwards our vision enlarges, limitations 
disappear, difficulties apparently insurmountable are 
overcome, and we are rilled with a sense of well-being 
and contentment. 



SECTION V 
GENERAL PRINCIPLES 



131 



CHAPTER XI 

ETHICS AND RULES 
WITH SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 

There would be little need of mention of mountaineer- 
ing ethics, if the golden rule of ethics were always kept 
in mind. 

We are all apt to be forgetful at times, however. 
Keen, eager beginners, out of pure thoughtlessness or 
ignorance, may sometimes fail to exhibit a proper 
consideration for other mountaineers or sportsmen, 
whom they may happen to encounter, or be with, upon 
the heights. 

It would be beyond the wisdom of anyone to draw 
up a set of rules to fit all the conditions of a sport or 
pursuit whose great benefit, beauty, and attraction 
is its " infinite variety." I do not attempt it here. 

Perhaps the most comprehensive short rule which 
could readily be devised is this threefold one: "Conserve 
energy, don't waste time, and always be careful." 

If in this chapter it is found that I seem to modify 
or neglect any of the excellent rules compiled by former 
writers on mountaineering, it will, I hope, be found that 
this has only been done in the case of those rules which 
the progress of mountaineering has modified, or which, 
if strictly adhered to, might tend to put a stop to all 
progress or enterprise. 

It has been advised that ' ' No beginner should start 
climbing with the idea that he may one day wish to 
dispense with the assistance of guides." 

I would prefer to retain this rule with the sole 
alteration of " No " into " Every." A very much 

133 



134 ETHICS AND RULES 

greater degree of care and attention will now be infused 
into the beginner's climbing methods. Even if he does 
not care to climb without guides, or never acquires 
sufficient skill, he will render himself a much safer and 
more pleasant companion to his guides, his friends, 
and most of all to his porter. 

A rule which used to be strongly urged in less crowded 
days, was that there should never be more than two 
parties upon a rock-peak at one time. The danger to 
be guarded against was, of course, that of falling stones. 
Such a rule is a hopeless ideal nowadays, at the great 
centres, in fine weather. It is no uncommon event for 
from forty to fifty people to be on the Matterhorn, for 
instance, in one day. They may not all get up, of 
course. 

After all, however, in spite of the great increase of 
travellers, the risk has not proportionately risen. This 
is due to the straightening out, the path-making, the 
throwing down of loose stones, and the avoidance of 
places where stones are likeliest to fall. 

That the danger is real still is proved by the many 
accidents, some few fatal, which take place on these 
crowded rock-peaks. In most cases these accidents 
could have been avoided by a little give and take, and 
waiting on each other, at places where disturbance of 
stones was probable. It may be very annoying to 
have to keep behind a party which is sending down 
stones, but it should be noted that a following party 
has no right to race past the leaders, and perhaps 
send down stones on them. 

Racing on climbs is utterly bad form, and has been 
a fruitful source of accident. Permission to pass 
should always be asked. The party which starts 
first from the hut has the precedence on the mountain. 

If the parties are with guides, the guides, if they 
know each other, will probably arrange the order of 
precedence among themselves. The guideless party 
is in the worst case. Should they be allowed, having 
started first, to endanger or keep back, by clumsiness, 



ROUTES AND DANGERS 135 

or ignorance of the route, or not being sufficiently 
skilful to make their own way, a following guided 
party ? 

If they follow a guided party, can they declare 
themselves a " guideless " party? ;, Payless" might 
seem a more suitable term. Guides are, as a rule, 
a most polite and considerate body of men. We could 
hardly blame them, should they be tempted to exhibit 
signs of temper at finding their charges endangered, 
or kept back, by irresponsibles. 

The fact is that these " popular peaks " are not suited 
to guideless climbers who desire to deserve the name of 
" mountaineer." 

The routes are so well worn and well marked, there 
are so many parties on the standard Alpine routes 
in the high season, that little scope is left for the 
practice of the higher art of mountaineering. They 
may be most enjoyable climbs, repaying in the ex- 
treme from the scenic or the athletic point of view ; 
but the Alpine man who confines hiniself to them, 
whether with guides or without, has hardly the right 
to look down upon British rock-climbing as " not 
mountaineering. ' ' 

It should be most carefully noted, however, that the 
first ascent for the season of any of the great peaks, 
or their attempted ascent in bad conditions, is a very 
different thing from the clinib in fine weather in mid- 
August. The mountains are still the same, and can 
be as formidable and dangerous as they ever were. 

Even the Matterhorn, that chained and degraded 
" Samson bound to make sport for the Philistines," 
can be very terrible in a sudden storm. 

Young people of either sex should not be taken on 
long and difficult Alpine expeditions before the age of 
eighteen or nineteen, however strong and active they 
may be. Except in the case of a few individuals, they 
are not fitted to endure long -continued exertion. The 
war age has not been fixed without good reason. 

There is no cause, however, why boys and girls 



136 ETHICS AND RULES 

should not go on our own home hills or rocks. We have 
no elevation which makes any practical difference in 
the density of the air. 

Even the difficult Dolomite climbs are much less 
exhausting than the ascent of the great Alpine peaks. 
Dolomite climbing, in fact, from the path and hut 
organisation, often the roping, and especially the foot- 
gear employed, the light, soft, Idetterschuhe or scar- 
petti, is usually considerably easier and less fatiguing 
than average British rock-climbing. Many famous 
Dolomite climbs are no longer, and are less difficult, 
than some British rock climbs. 

Some remarkable records in climbing have certainly 
been made by children. Thus Captain Charles Inglis 
Clark, A.C., ascended the Matterhorn when a boy of 
fourteen. A young girl, Miss Flossie Morse, made 
the ascent to the top of Mont Blanc when only twelve. 
Even this record has been beaten by a little Chamonix 
boy, a son of Monsieur and Madame Charlet-Stratton, 
who fought and fell for his country in the Great War, 
as did also Captain Clark. This boy accompanied 
his parents to the summit of Mont Blanc when only 
llj years old. All these children, however, had been 
accustomed to climbing for years, and were in the best 
of health and training at the time of their ascents. 
Certainly in their cases no ill effects were felt. Never- 
theless, the rule enunciated at the beginning of this 
passage should not be lightly disregarded. 

Perhaps it is a case of " A fellow feeling makes us 
wondrous kind," but I wish to put in a plea here for 
the Alpine porter. I mean especially the young porter. 
It was not always sufficiently recognised how much 
of his scansorial shortcomings might be due to his 
overloaded condition. Of course, it is the guides who 
are to blame, as a rule, when the porter is overloaded ; 
but the traveller should not allow this. If he is luxuri- 
ously minded, and requires large quantities of food . 
and drink, let him hire another porter. If not, let 
him jettison a few unnecessaries, such as tins of fruit, 



THE LEADER 137 

thermos flasks, and bottles, and the result will be well 
shown in greater speed, less anxiety, and far less risk. 

It is certainly surprising to see the enormous loads 
which are carried by the young people, even quite 
small girls, of Alpine countries ; but, though early and 
constant use can do wonders, the over-loading of the 
willing horse can be, and too often is, I am afraid, 
carried too far. 

There is little difficulty for the average healthy 
young man or young woman of normal balance, in 
learning the elements of the climbing craft, and in 
becoming, in a very short time, perfectly competent 
to form one of a properly led roped party. 

To take the place of that leader is a very different 
matter. Anyone who aspires to lead a party of 
amateurs on the high snows ought to have gone through 
a long and careful apprenticeship. It is not at all 
necessary for this apprenticeship, in its earlier stages 
at any rate, to be gone through in Alpine regions above 
snow-level. The best Alpine guides usually served 
it well below that 

The ability to climb difficult rocks, to cut steps up 
and down steep ice, to have perfect balance and never 
slip, and to have great endurance, are the smaller, less 
important part of the requirements of a really good 
guide or leader. 

More important are the possession of an apparently 
intuitive eye for country, an "instinct" for route- 
finding, or so-called " bump of locality," a great power 
of judging time and space, and a wide knowledge of 
mountain structure. In short, a real mountaineering 
leader is the man who " understands " mountains. 

Some years ago an old man in a French village pos- 
sessed an almost uncanny power over the wild animals 
and birds which dwelt in his vicinity. He was asked, 
one day, how he could account for it. He replied, 
" As for the birds, I love them, I know their ways ; the 
wild ones will come and eat out of my hands." 

The second on the rope has also his duties and 



138 ETHICS AND RULES 

responsibilities. He must look after the leader's rope 
when the first man is engaged on rocks of some difficulty 
— seeing that it runs out freely — and should look for 
and use all available hitches which do not check the 
leader's upward progress. He should be prepared to 
give the leader actual physical assistance where this 
is necessary, if this can be done safely ; but, with a 
competent leader, such assistance should be very rarely 
required. He will also have to look after the third 
man's rope when it is his turn to move. He may have 
to repay to number three, who will probably be the 
heaviest loaded, the small amount of assistance he 
may have received from number one on a difficult 
pitch. 

It is not one of the second man's duties to offer 
unasked advice regarding the route to be followed, or 
the holds to be used by the leader. Holds viewed 
from the angle of the first and second man, on a steep 
rock face, are very different things. What looks like a 
nice, comfortable, square ledge may be in reality very 
dangerous, or quite impossible to use. I have known 
of a case, on a new climb, where a third man kept up 
a stream of advice to the leader. The second on the 
rope, however, happened to be a relation of his, and 
threw down upon, and silenced him with, a few remarks 
of a crushingly Johnsonian nature. 

Of course, if number two is an expert, who is coaching 
a novice up a known climb, the case is quite different. 

C in a party of three has apparently the least to do, 
but this is only so on certain short, steep, upward 
rock climbs. He is generally, in any case, the heaviest 
loaded, and has the onerous duty of leading down on 
the descent. l 

There is one important point, curiously enough often 
forgotten by even experienced climbers, which all 
members of a roped party must carefully note. After 
passing a slight difficulty which has delayed them, they 
must not at once put on pace on the easier ground 

1 See Chapter VIII. 



FITNESS 139 

beyond. They must remember that the comrade 
behind them has still to pass the place where they 
slowed down. 

Fitness 

A party ought all to be in very good condition 
before a long, hard climb is attacked. 

This would seem such a very obvious requirement, 
that it might almost be thought superfluous to mention 
it. As a matter of fact, it is one of the most frequently 
trangressed of mountaineering rules. The lower slopes 
of popular peaks are often strewn with their collapsed 
would-be conquerors, whose appetite for the ascent 
has been more than their digestion of it. I have 
met, in Alpine huts, strong, active young climbers, 
utterly collapsed, who, proud of their ability to tackle 
the longest and hardest climbs on British rocks, have 
rushed at comparatively easy though high peaks, such 
as the Dent Blanche, without training, or first finding 
out whether they were affected by altitude or not. 
The man who does this is, to put it bluntly, a fool. 

It should also be remembered that the man who goes 
with a party, more especially if it is a guideless one, 
while feeling himself really unfit, may easily throw a 
heavy strain, both physical and mental, not only on 
himself, but also on his companions or guides. The 
condition of the climber is thus important : almost 
more so is condition of the mountain. This is what 
makes the record times given in some guide-books so 
often misleading. 

Records are, in fact, usually more or less fakes. Thus 
the motor-car maker, who wishes to put up a speed 
record, selects a hard, flat stretch of sand ten miles long, 
strips the car, waits for a gale behind, and picks out 
the mile speed in the middle. Very remarkable, but 
not the faintest proof that his car is better, faster, or as 
fast, as a dozen others whose speed record has not 
been faked. Alpine climbing, of all sports, holds out 



140 . ETHICS AND RULES 

greatest opportunities to the record-breaking fakist, 
as condition of the mountain is such a vitally important 
factor in the speed of the ascent. The same party, in 
the same training, may take more than twice the time 
to ascend and descend, say the Matterhorn, in May 
or June than they do in August. Whatever be the 
condition, let us hope all record-breaking efforts will 
be avoided by real mountaineers. " Don't vxiste time " 
is a perfectly correct rule. That really means, conserve 
time as one does energy : always have a reserve to fall 
back upon if required. 

An Alpine Modification 

The climber on British crags is told always to hitch, 
and always to move one at a time, when on rocks of 
some difficulty. The advice is sound, and should 
always be most carefully adhered to. He will be 
somewhat surprised, on going to the Alps or Dolo- 
mites, to find that the guides very rarely do these things, 
— nor, on the whole, is it often necessary to be done by 
them. Though the average standard of climbing is 
much lower than on the short British climbs, the climbs 
themselves are much longer. The element of time is 
very important. 

On slopes which are at all steep, it is very easy for 
the guide or 'practised leader to stop a man who slips 
or falls, whether on rocks or ice, from close below him, 
and ceaseless vigilance becomes a good guide's second 
nature. If hitching and stopping, at every place of 
some slight difficulty, were to be practised in the Alps, 
the longer climbs would, with amateurs in parties 
of three and four, almost invariably result in the party 
being benighted. The method would not be allowed 
by a guide, especially a piece-work man. 

The somewhat niggling methods of climbing, cus- 
tomary and necessary on British climbs, with parties 
very often containing " weak," that is, unsteady 
members, and with leaders who may not yet have 



STRAYING 141 

reached even the journeyman stage in rock-craft, are 
not suitable for the high Alps. 

A young British rock-climber may have a very 
natural and laudable ambition to go with, or lead, 
an amateur party in the Alps. He may have done a 
long list of rock " courses." The point is, however, 
not that he has done these, but he should ask himself 
how did he do them ? Did he do them with an ample 
margin of safety, apart from hitching, belaying, back- 
ing up, and combined tactics ? If not, he is not justi- 
fied in attacking great peaks without guides, apart 
from other requirements. 



Straying 

If the party is a guided one, straying — by which I 
mean the party splitting up, and wandering off in 
different directions — is not likely to occur. The 
amateur is certainly unwise who thinks he knows the 
ground better than a guide, who also is a native of it. 
Straying is more probable with a guideless party. 

Nothing is more likely to lead to annoyance, loss 
of temper, of time, and of the way, to cause the 
party to get benighted, to be a fruitful source of acci- 
dents, perhaps to lead to the total break-up of the 
party. 

It is likeliest to occur on the homeward route, after 
the nominally difficult places have been overcome, and 
the rope, of course, taken off. The root of this trouble 
lies in the party not having a definite leader. Equality 
is an excellent principle if all were equally skilled. 
This never occurs in practice. It is not necessarily 
the case that the leader of the ascent on the rocks, or 
the ice, should also be the leader on the easy homeward 
route, but there ought to be a leader. The members 
of a party ought never to get out of sight of each other 
until a definite path is reached. For the purpose of 
keeping within earshot when out of sight of each other.. 



142 ETHICS AND RULES 

every member of a party should carry a siren or other 
whistle. 



The Alpine Distress-signal 

This consists of a succession of sounds, or of flashes 
at night, or heliographed by day. These must be 
made at the rate of six per minute, with one minute's 
interval. In replying, the rate is to be three per 
minute, with the same interval. 



Roping Peaks 

It has been said that the roping of peaks, like the 
"roping" of horses, should be anathema to all true 
sportsmen. 

There are, however, I consider, a few places on Alpine 
peaks where this is perhaps allowable. 

If there exist, high up, one or two passages where 
the rottenness of the rocks, the liability to become 
iced, or the intrinsic difficulty, reduce the margin of 
safety for even the first-rate guide or leader too low ; 
these, I think, may allowably be roped. A few such 
places are : the Meije aretes in Dauphine, at the 
" Capucin " and "Pic Zsigmondy"; the South 
Aiguille D'Arves, also in Dauphine, at the "Mauvais 
Pas " ; the Zinal arete of the Dent Blanche, at a great 
gendarme ; the Petit Dru, the ice-chimney below the 
" Shoulder " ; and a few others. 

The Grepon is not roped, nor do I consider it con- 
tains any passage which ought to be roped. 1 

The reason for the extensive roping of Alpine peaks 
in modern times is, that thereby the inferior guides 
are enabled to earn as much money as those superior 
to them, by the roping enabling them to hoist and let 

1 A guide, a Grepon expert, in apostrophising the peak, says : 
" Le Grepon c'est un grand Diable, et il faut d'avoir des bons bras 
et le cceur fidele pour aller a bout. . . . Mais c'est aussi un ennemi 
loyal, ne fuyant jamais. . . ." 



NUMBERS 143 

down themselves and their tourists, on mountains 
and routes, otherwise quite out of their power. 

This wholesale roping has, however, brought with it 
a kind of Nemesis. It encourages on these routes 
numbers of " guideless " climbers, who swarm up 
the guides' fixed ropes, and fall down them, and pay 
nothing to anyone — except Charon. 

These routes even become infested by the " solitary 
climber," or alleinganger. This is usually not a 
mountaineer, and not a "solitary" climber at all. 
He would never care to climb on places where he had 
no spectators. He is usually a young, thoughtless 
person, with a cranium considerably too large for the 
contained brain. As he has no rope, he is able to move 
faster on the easy, well-marked rocks of the popular 
peaks, than can a roped party, even with good guides. 
He possibly imagines this party admires his skill and 
agility. In reality he is a dangerous nuisance, and an 
ass ; but he is quite hurt when told that truth by some 
exasperated guide, whose "Monsieur" he has just 
missed killing with a stone. 

Nl7MBEE IN THE PaETY 

This so varies, according to the kind of climb, and 
the composition and capabilities of the party, that no 
general rule applies. Any number on a rope exceeding 
four will be very slow on rocks of some difficulty. 

On easy glaciers, or simple snow ascents, large 
numbers may often be seen on a single rope, almost 
like beads on a string ; but such parties are not com- 
posed of mountaineers. 

TheJPaety ofFoue 

For average climbs and for average Alpine conditions 
the parti carve is, in my opinion, the most suitable. 
It stands like a fort, four-square to all the Alpine winds 
of accident or of labour which may blow upon it. 



144 ETHICS AND RULES 

With such a party serious mishap on a glacier should 
be well-nigh impossible. If it contains two members 
who are capable of leading upon difficult rocks, the 
second of these need not be a "guide" ; its pace on 
these rocks will not be slower, but faster, than the party 
of three, if it is split up into two ropes of two each. If 
the party is even a moderately competent one, four 
should enable the load of the leader to be reduced to 
a minimum, or of his being relieved of a load altogether. 

In deep snow it can ring the changes of leadership 
four times within the hour — a very important point in 
such exhausting conditions for the pro tern, leader. 
Should an accident happen to a single member, one 
can stay with the injured man, while the other two go 
for assistance. 

In exploratory work beyond the Alps, four is the 
ideal number for the climbing party : the temporary 
sickness of a member, or even two, need not stop alto- 
gether the party's activities. 

Three on a Rope 

Three was the number declared to be the absolute 
minimum allowable, by the leading British authorities 
of last century. Had they added " on crevassed 
glaciers for novices, and not yet mountaineers," little 
fault could be found with this rule. There are places 
and parties for which the smaller number, two, is safer 
and more suitable. I shall deal with the two cases 
together. 

Two on a Rope 

Many years ago it was somewhat sweepingly and 
dogmatically stated by a writer in the Alpine Journal : 
" Whatever number is right, two is unquestionably 
wrong." 

This opinion has sometimes been treated by writers 
on mountaineering as infallible logic. As a matter 
of fact the opinion, and the practice, of most first-class 






TWO OX A ROPE 145 

mountaineers is, and has been, in direct contradiction 
of this dictum. 

Professor John Ball, F.R.S., who edited the well- 
known series of Alpine Guides, writes thus : "I am 
of the opinion that two first-rate mountaineers are 
perfectly capable of carrying out any expedition, and 
that they are just as likely to succeed as a larger 
number." He also explains and elaborates his position 
farther on. Professor Tyndall, with Bennen, or 
Lauener, had no hesitation in attacking, and safely 
conquering, the greatest summits of the Alps, as far 
back as the 50 ; s of last century. 

Professor J. D. Forbes, and in fact most of the 
scientific pioneers of climbing, were of similar opinion 
and practice to Ball and Tyndall. In more modern days, 
Mr. A. F. Mummery, one of the finest of mountain- 
eers, was also of the opinion of Professor Ball, and 
of course practised on a much larger scale. 

Practically all the best professional guides were 
perfectly willing, and considered and proved it per- 
fectly safe, to go alone with an able and competent 
amateur. 

Mr. Mummery went frequently alone with Alexander 
Burgener and other guides. He conquered the great 
rock and ice-peak of Dykh-Tau 17,054 feet) in the 
Caucasus, with a single guide Zmfluh). 

Messrs. Longstaff and Holiest on in that range in 
1903, Messrs. Egger and Mieseher in 1914, conquered 
high and difficult snow-peaks. Messrs. Rubinson and 
Monraad Aas, gained, in 1907, the greatest height then 
reached on earth, on the north-east peak of Kabru in 
Sikkim (23,900 feet), by themselves. 

Alexander Burgener of Saas, TTrich Aimer of Grindel- 
walcl, Eniil Rev of Courniayeur, had never any hesita- 
tion in conducting, single-handed, any amateur whose 
capabilities they knew. 

The advocates of the " never less than three *" party 
took up the absurd and illogical position of basing 
their minimum on the position of the party after an 

10 



146 ETHICS AND RULES 

accident has happened to one member, and laying very 
strong emphasis on the concealed crevasse glacier as 
a main danger. 

If, however, we are to base our climbing number on 
such a supposition, then I think we must have not 
three, but five members. 

It is rightly one of the strictest canons of mountain- 
eering ethics, that an injured member must not 
be left alone upon a mountain. If we have a man 
injured in our party of three we must either break 
this law, or commit the hardly less heinous " crime," 
to the three-minimum man, of sending a party of one 
down the mountain and over the crevassed glacier. 

In analyses of Alpine accidents I have seen " two 
on a rope " calmly stated as a cause of a certain accident 
by some of these " three " purists, not one particle 
of evidence being given that this was really so. They 
simply assumed that three was the correct number ; 
therefore, seeing there were only two, this was the 
cause of the accident ! 

Fact, arithmetic, and common sense are enough to 
show that, other things being equal, there is about 
33 \ per cent, less chance of an accident happening to 
two than to three climbers. This is considerably 
understating the advantages of two in the reduction 
of chance of accident. In actual practice, it is. im- 
possible to get together three climbers who are exactly 
equal in mountaineering ability. The probable advan- 
tage from dropping the weakest, and most likely 
to cause an accident, is much greater than 33 \ per cent. ; 
it may be more than 50 per cent. Even in the case 
of the crevassed glacier, the stock argument of the 
triplices, two careful and experienced men will not fall 
into crevasses at all, which the careless and clumsy 
third will drop into as naturally as into his club. 

Let us carry the case ad absurdum. What possible 
advantage could it be, from the point of view of safety, 
whatever it might from the point of view of pocket, 
to two able and experienced guides, to be roped 



TWO ON A ROPE 147 

to a "great, drunken, terrified marmot" of an 
amateur ? x 

Of course, it is really far more important to prevent 
accidents than to endeavour to mitigate their effects. 

This is to be done by carefulness and technical 
knowledge. Two good men are far safer than three 
ignoramuses, even on a crevassed glacier. 

It will thus be seen that a party of two on a glacier 
is an expert's game. A novice may join any party 
of two experienced men : he most certainly ought 
not to form one of such a number, even though the 
other is a guide. 

A very great advantage for the party of two on a 
difficult rock mountain is, that they are able to adopt 
the great safeguard of hitching, and only moving one 
at a time, much more freely than a larger party, and 
yet not lose too much time. Every additional man 
on the rope on a climb of some difficulty, either adds 
enormously to the time required, or else to the danger. 

Mr. Mummery, for the sake of extra security for 
a party of two on a crevassed, snow-covered glacier, 
proposed (and practised ?) the carrying of a double 
rope. This, however, is clumsy, and if it gets twisted, 
is then really one rope. 

A better plan is for both men to tie on with the bow- 
line on a bight knot, and for each to carry half the 
reserve cord, with a stirrup already made on it. 2 If 
now either fall in at all, it should not be very difficult 
for the one outside to extract the other. If the two are 
keeping at proper intervals for such a party, — twenty 
or even thirty feet is not too much, with no slack on 
the rope, — there should be no difficulty in stopping the 
faller in a few feet, and thus preventing injury. If 
there has been no obvious sign of the crevasse, the snow 
is so thick that it is an easy matter for the outside 
man to get a hitch with his axe. 3 He belays the insider 

1 Michelet, La Montague, quoting guides' overheard talk re- 
garding their " Monsieur." 

2 See Chapter IV, p. 62. 3 See Chapter VI, p. 82. 



148 ETHICS AND RULES 

to this, while he goes to the edge of the crevasse and 
passes him down the end of his stirrup-rope. If " in- 
side " can help himself at all the task of getting him 
out should not be difficult. 

It should be remembered that " outside " can gain 
power, equal to at least two men hauling with their 
arms, by using the Yorkshire seaf owls' egg " klimmers' " 
method. 1 This is done by sitting down, passing the 
rope round the small of the back, and hoisting by 
bending and straightening the thighs. 

Best Order on the Rope 

For " guides " may be read, the better climbers. 

In the case of the party of two there is no difficulty : 
the guide leads up and follows down. 

For the order when three are on the rope I have 
already expressed my opinion. That is, that the 
weakest of the party should in general be placed 
between the other two. On extra difficult pure ascents, 
either on rock or ice, it may be better for the weakest 
to go last, but never lowest on the descent. By 
weakest is of course meant the least good and practised 
climber. Physical strength has nothing to do with 
this. 

When the party consists of four, the case is rather 
more complicated. 

We shall suppose the party to consist of two guides, 
Gl and G2, and two amateurs, Al and A2. 

The order will then be, Gl, Al, G2, A2 ; but it will 
not do to reverse this on the descent if both Al and 
A2 are inexperienced. It is also not permissible to 
have two inexperienced climbers together on the rope. 
Really, in this case, two guides are not enough ; we 
must add G3. 

The order down will then be G3, A2, G2, Al, Gl. 
Five on a rope is, however, as has been elsewhere 
mentioned, a slow party. I consider it would be better 

1 See Chapter III, p. 51. 



CLIMBING ALONE 149 

to split it thus : Gl-Al and G2-A2-G3. This is the 
order up. For the descent, reverse ; no rearrangement 
is required. A guide leads down, the weaker tourist 
is between two guides. 

The smaller party keeps close behind G2, so that 
Al has no route to find, and can always, if necessary, 
be shown his footholds, or receive assistance otherwise 
from G2, without the here unnecessary complication 
of the rope. This supposes, of course, that G2 is nearly 
as good as Gl, and quite competent to come down last. 

If one of the amateurs is competent to lead down, 
and Gl and G2 are nearly equal, there is no necessity 
for the third G, and I think the party would in this 
case be as safe, and certainly would be faster, if it was 
also split up into two ropes. x 

Climbing Unhoped, ajstd Climbing Alone 

If climbing " two on a rope " has been banned 
by some British Alpine authorities, climbing unroped 
or alone has been utterly damned. They seem to 
have forgotten that the general use of the rope for 
mountaineering purposes, is of very modern origin. 

In old Alpine narratives, as. for instance, the ascent of 
Mont Blanc, the members usually proceeded separately. 
Sometimes they held on to poles carried by the guides. 
Ropes seem to have been taken mainly for the purpose 
of hauling out of crevasses any of the army of guides 
and porters who happened to fall in. This event, 
as they seem to have been frequently pretty well 
fuddled, was far from rare. 

Even in later times we learn, from the accounts of 
Alpine climbs, that the rope was only occasionally 
assumed at the more difficult passages, and not worn 
constantly from hut to hut, as is now more usual. 

Far is it from my intention to condemn the use of 
the Alpine rope. It should always be assumed in 
places where danger could possibly occur, and, for the 

1 See p. 144. 



150 ETHICS AND RULES 

tourist and inexperienced, is essential ; but the Alpine 
rope is, like the crampon in these days, in danger of 
becoming a fetish, and used by incompetents to cover 
up thoroughly bad mountaineering. 

To the leader of a mixed party, be he guide or 
competent amateur, the dangers of being attached to 
a rope are far greater than any benefit it confers. 
Few leading guides on a steep ice slope, or Dolomite 
experts on an extra difficult passage, but would feel 
much safer unroped. 

The old rope " idolaters," the really scientific 
pioneers were not of the cult, who were so eager to 
condemn the solitary mountaineer on paper, were 
at the same time at one in showing a practical appre- 
ciation of him, by always seeking him out to act as 
their guide. The pioneer guides were almost always 
the most daring chamois-hunters of their respective 
districts. As such, they had gone through a long and 
hard apprenticeship to the art of mountaineering alone. ■ 

They had begun on the proper place to learn : the 
lower heights below snow-level. There is no reason 
why an amateur should not equal them if he takes 
sufficient trouble. 

This cannot be done, whether on the lesser or greater 
heights, in a season or two. The way of the expert is 
long and hard. 

Nature is kind to her true lovers, but can be cruel, 
even killingly cruel, to the curious impertinent, or 
presumptuous ignorant. Her law of gravity never 
" forgets." 

The best place, therefore, to learn the elements of 
mountaineering is on the lesser heights, where all the 
great guides learnt them. If the beginner rushes at 
high or difficult climbs, either at home or abroad, he 

1 Mr. H. M. Stutfield, in an article, " Mountain Sport," in the 
Alpine Journal, vol. xx„ May 1000, treats the subject of glacier 
travel, unroped and alone, in a common-sense fashion. He writes : 
" As one has to spend a good deal of time on glaciers without a 
rope, some knowledge of ice and snow is indispensable," 



THE WOULD-BE "ALPINIST" 151 

is really attempting to practise the higher mathematics 
before he has mastered the multiplication-table. 

Too often the would-be ; ' Alpinist " rushes out to 
the snows. He is dragged up a few of the great peaks, 
in fine summer conditions, by strong, able guides. He 
returns, pleased and proud that now he can call 
himself an " Alpinist " indeed. 

And so he can ; but that title, honourable and correct 
in its French meaning, in English has quite other 
significance. 

In English, ; ' Alpinist " means a poor, pinchbeck 
imitation of a mountaineer, a meaner Tartarin, without 
the Tarrasconnais' innocence and bonhomie. 1 

Britain has wild and dangerous waves and currents 
round her shores, on which Britons can, and do, make 
friendship with the sea, and learn the ways of the ocean. 
Her winds are high, sudden, and fickle, the best and 
sternest schools for teaching the mastery of the skies. 
She has also large tracts of elevated, wild, and desolate 
country. Xo better ground exists anywhere for the 
training of the mountaineer. I do not write at present 
of British rock-chmbing. Our schools of this are quite 
equal in ability, and much superior in safety, to the 
best of the continental schools, but it is to be regretted 
that fell walking, and scrambling, is less practised than 
it might be. 

This is the opportunity for the solitary mountaineer. 

If he can find companions, well and good. If not, 
let him. go alone, and go at all seasons. Take it easy, 
do not race ; the mind cannot concentrate upon the 
effort for speed, and observe and note at the same time. 

Go over a range in clear weather, come back and do 
the same in mist. Take map, compass, and aneroid, 
and study them. Occasionally leave all behind and 
go without. Too much map. and too much compass, 
have sometimes, like too much rubbers, and too much 
crampons, on rock and snow respectively, a bad and 
cramping effect upon mountaineering ;i instinct." Hide 

l Tqrtqrin sur \es Alpes, AJphopse Pandet, 



152 ETHICS AND RULES 

something about a hill-side. Go back in a day, week, 
month, or year, and find it again. 

There are also many interests in every hill-walk 
which will unconsciously train the mountaineering 
memory. 

The geologist will note the outcrops, the horizons, 
the dip of the rocks, and their nature ; will remember 
a pass, or the easiest route through a chaos of boulders, 
by the finding of some peculiar stone. 

The mountain wild-flowers will speak in their own 
language to the botanist who loves them. 

The naturalist will greet the birds and I beasts of 
the hills, will know the approximate height above sea- 
level by the varying fauna as he climbs. He may 
find, in a mist, the crag he was seeking by hearing the 
thrice-repeated note of the ring-ousel, or the sharp, 
chiding cry of the kestrel, who, he knows, has. her 
eyry on one of the high ledges. 

The essence of true sportsmanship is consideration 
for others ; therefore, the mountaineer will avoid the 
deer-forest sanctuaries in the stalking season, and will 
refrain from tramping through the long" heather of 
the grouse-moor during the nesting time. 

If the would-be mountaineer on the greatest peaks 
in the world were to begin in this fashion, far more 
climbing would be done, with far fewer accidents. 

He would be able to take his place on the climbing- 
rope with the assurance that he was not likely to be 
a source of weakness to his party, whether guided 
or not. 



CHAPTEE XH 

HOW TO USB THE ICE-AXE. CRAMPONS, AKD EOPE 

The management of the ice-axe, like that of the golf- 
club and cricket-bat, cannot be learned from a book. 
By far the best method of learning is to watch an expert 
at work. 

The advice to do this is freely given to the novice 
in the Alps. Unfortunately for him, this advice 
is. nowadays, not always easy to follow. There are 
probably much fewer really expert axe-men in pro- 
portion among the guides of the great centres than 
formerly, and in the novice's first season he may make 
the ascent of half a dozen, say, of the Zermatt peaks 
without seeing the guides cut a single step ; all neces- 
sary steps having been already cut by preceding parties. 

The ice-axe, to one who sees it for the first time, will 
appear an awkward, uncouth, and dangerous weapon, 
and in the hands of the complete novice it is certainly 
all these. It would seem a good plan to learn its feel 
and carriage, and to make some acquaintance, at least, 
with its uses before taking it on an Alpine expedition. 
By doing this, injury is much less likely to be inflicted 
upon its owner, his friends, or guides, and the axe is 
much less liable to be lost. 

Treatment 

Like a cricket-bat, the axe should receive an 
occasional dressing of oil. After use it should be 
carefully dried and polished, and the metal parts 
covered with a film of vaseline or thick oil. The leather 
hoods should then be replaced. 

153 



154 THE ICE-AXE, CRAMPONS, AND ROPES 

Carriage 

The best way to carry an ice-axe, when not in use, is 
under the arm-pit, as one carries a gun. The gun is 
sometimes carried over the shoulder ; so is the ice-axe, 
but it is less adapted for this position. It may also 
be carried at the trail, in which case the man in front 
should be warned. Ordinarily on the mountains it 
is used as a stick, or alpenstock, and this in fact is its 
main function for the majority of Alpine climbers, 
especially when with guides. 

When travelling by rail or conveyance, an ice-axe 
should always have its points protected by covers. 
This is not so much for the axe's own sake, as for the 
sake of the fellow-travellers with it. One is no more 
justified in placing a naked ice-axe in the rack of a 
railway carriage than if it were a naked sword. 

For the purpose of becoming familiar with the 
balance and " feel " of an ice-axe, and at the same time 
training the co-ordinance of hand, foot, and eye, the 
axe may be thrown into the air, caused to revolve a 
determined number of times, and caught on the descent, 
in either hand, as a good step-cutter should be ambidex- 
trous. This is done while running down a steep slope 
without stopping. 

N.B. — It is best to try this at first with a walking- 
stick, and, if an ice-axe is used, to see that the axe is 
muzzled at all three biting ends. 

Step-cutting 

The best place to learn how to carry and use an axe 
is probably on a winter climb at home. The naked 
glacier near some Alpine hotel is also a most excellent 
practice-ground. It should be noted, however, that it 
is very different work making steps in glacier ice below 
snow- level and cutting them in the hard, tough, low- 
temperature ice of the heights, 



STEP-CUTTING 155 

The ice-axe described in the chapter on "Equipment" 
is probably the one best suited to all the varying con- 
ditions and purposes, under and for which an axe is 
used. We shall now suppose that we are handling 
such an axe. 

It will be observed that the shaft is everywhere 
oval. This not only means the placing of material 
where most required, it also allows of the axe-shaft 
falling into or remaining in the hands when cutting 
steps, without an effort being required to keep the pick 
straight. 

Mr. Dent, in the Badminton volume on Mountaineer- 
ing, quotes a famous old ice-guide, Melchior Anderegg, 
as saying: "In making steps, the ice-axe should be 
gripped firmly." This is quite correct if the ice-axe 
shaft is of a bad pattern, i.e. round, as was usually 
the case with old axes, and some of this pattern are 
still sold. With these, unless tightly gripped before, 
during, and after the blow, the axe-pick is very apt 
to slew round slightly. Power is thus to a great extent 
lost ; the laboriously cut ice-step may be destroyed. 

With our axe, we work just as loosely as is possible. 
No amateur could ever hope to be able to cut steps 
for many hours if he had to grip the axe-shaft 
tightly all the time. The aim is, as in all good-form 
mountaineering, not to expend a single ounce more 
force than necessary. We push, not pull, the blow. We 
make the axe do the bulk of the work. The only time 
the guiding hand — that nearest the axe-head — grips 
tightly, is just at the instant of the pick's contact with 
the ice. At this moment the axe may be pulled for- 
ward slightly with a picking motion ; but this depends 
upon the stage and condition of the step in process of 
making. 

Some guides are said to give a kind of half-turn to 
the pick, by means of the forefinger of the guiding hand, 
on its contact with the ice. Melchior Anderegg, 
according to Mr. Dent, " did not advance the fore- 
finger except when using one hand only." One- 



156 THE ICE-AXE, CRAMPONS, AND ROPE 

handed cutting is very hard and difficult work, and 
generally has to be done in an awkward position. 
Amateurs who do not possess the iron fingers of an 
Anderegg, will generally find it better to advance 
the thumb. The grip in this case must, of course, be 
firm, and cramp is pretty certain to develop if the 
cutting is long-continued. 

Two-handed cutting should, in general, be done 
with an easy swing of the body moving from the hips, 
not merely with the arms. It will rarely be found 
necessary to lift the ice-axe higher than the head, even 
in the somewhat crouching position necessitated by 
the modern short shaft. Correct aim and delivery 
are far more important than violence of blow. It will 
be found of advantage, in determining the "rise" 
and dimensions of the steps on an ascending slope, if 
the first few strokes are directed somewhat sideways 
i.e. slightly under a right angle to the slope. After 
the step is gently sketched out some harder blows 
are dealt, the force is then reduced, and the roughly 
hewn step shaped out. The floor or tread is made to 
slope inwards at a slight angle, and ice-chips and snow 
cleared out by means of the adze. 

This description must be taken as the general pro- 
cedure on ice at ordinary angles. It must be modified 
to suit the always varying conditions. The first few 
blows will tell the experienced cutter how the ice or 
neve must be treated. The number of blows required 
also varies enormously, from the single sideways 
slash or scrape of the adze corner, to a hundred or more 
blows of the pick. I have frequently used much more 
than the last number to a single step, where the ice 
was between 70° and 90° in ice-falls abroad, or ice- 
chimneys at home. 

In addition to its main function of forming the ice- 
steps, the pick can also be of service as an anchor or 
hitch on hard snow or ice. If in ice, then holes must 
first be dug in which to insert the pick. The adze 
can also be used in this manner, but this part, the 



THE ICE-AXE OX ROCKS 157 

original hatchet, is now of comparatively slight im- 
portance, and does more service as balance and weight 
to give force to the blows of the pick than otherwise. 
When crampons are used it is not required on hard 
snow. On snow too hard for kicking steps in, they 
may be quickly slashed by the adze. The axe is then 
used somewhat after the manner of killing a weed 
with a hoe. 

The Ice-axe ox Rocks 

On rocks, as a general rule, the axe is a nuisance ; 
but there are occasions where it is of the utmost service. 
On all long Alpine expeditions ice-axes should be 
carried, and by all the party, and it is seldom correct 
for any to be left behind at any stage of the climb. 
On traverses, of course, they must all be taken, all the 
way. 

On rocks in bad condition the axe of the leader is in 
constant requisition : to find and make handholds 
and footholds ; to clear off the masking snow from 
the ledges ; and to clear cracks and projections from 
the slippery ice. The axes of the followers are only 
less actively employed, and are very necessary anchors 
of safety on slippery rocks. 

Besides their more strictly orthodox uses such as 
indicated, ice-axes have also been employed on rocks 
in other ways : such as to push or persuade, by the 
vis a tergo method, people up pitches who were unable, 
or unwilling (?), to climb them. They have also been 
used as footholds, the pick stuck in a crack, or the 
shaft merely grasped in the powerful, or otherwise, 
hands of the second on the rope. The pick has been 
hung to a ledge (peccavif), and the ascent made by 
climbing up the shaft with the hands. All use of the 
ice-axe in these ways may be said to rather more than 
border on the illegitimate and unsafe. 



158 THE ICE-AXE, CRAMPONS, AND ROPES 

Slung Ice-axes 

For the purpose of freeing the hands when climbing 
rocks, slings are employed. These are best made of 
a strip of woven material such as hemp ; lamp-wick 
makes an excellent sling. The climber who trusts 
to a boot-lace will sooner or later lose his axe. The 
sling may be fastened to the head of the axe by means 
of a couple of clove-hitches. 

Though slings are useful and convenient for the 
followers, especially if these are not adepts at handling 
an axe, the sling is a great drawback to the leader, 
especially on icy rocks, or a much-mixed ice and rock 
arete. Cutting steps, or clearing ice and snow, cannot 
be done efficiently with a sling on, and it is too great 
a waste of time to be always taking it off and putting 
it on again. The climber who aspires to lead must 
learn to do without a sling. 

It is really easy, with practice, to carry the well- 
balanced modern ice-axe, with its flattened oval shaft, 
safely stowed between the thumb and forefinger of 
the left hand when climbing on rocks, except the very 
difficult. On these the axe may be pushed up by the 
leader, or passed up by the second, or even all the axes 
of the party may be hauled up separately on a spare 
cord. On an " open " difficult place, the axe may be 
carried, passed through the waist-loop behind. 

It is really safer for the party when the leader does 
not use a sling, if he really knows how to handle an axe. 

The ice-axe, with its long beak, has a nasty way, 
when slung, of getting caught at awkward places, and 
this, whether the sling-loop is over the wrist or over 
the elbow. If a follower is thus forced from his hold, 
no harm is done ; he has the rope above him. A leader 
must not take the risk. 



CRAMPONS 159 



How to use Crampons 

Some form, of crampon has been in use in Alpine 
countries from time immemorial. Just as. ever since 
the invention of the horse-shoe, or even previously, 
the hoofs of horses had to be sharped or muffled by 
their riders when crossing ice. 

The ultra-modern man of motors puts on crampon 
studs of steel, or muffles his " fiery "' steed's hooves 
with rope under similar conditions. 

Long before the time of Simler (1574) iron crampons 
were in common use in Switzerland when glacier 
passes had to be crossed. We read of their use in the 
Himalayas in the pages of Herodotus, and in the 
Caucasus in the works of Strabo and others. In this 
last range I have observed an ingenious fitment of 
rope made by the hunters of the " tor.' 3 This they 
put on over the smooth raw-hide shoes worn by all 
the mountain peoples. Smooth-soled soft shoes have 
been, in fact, the foot-gear of all mountain peoples, 
from Scotland and Xorway to the Caucasus and 
Himalayas. They are greatly superior on easy rocks 
and on rough ground generally to stiff, heavy boots. 

The detachable crampon was awkward, heavy, and 
easily lost. The nailed boot was evolved. The nailing 
systems now in use are in reality small fixed crampons. 
For the purpose for which the old one-piece crampon 
was employed, the traverse of hard snow, and ice at 
easy angles, the modern nailed boot is more convenient 
and more efficient when the nails are not too much 
worn. 

When Alpine climbing at steep angles began to 
develop it was probably the realisation by the pioneer 
guides of the great danger of using the old one-piece 
crampon on ice, except at very easy angles, which 
caused them to avoid them. Xone of the great pioneers 
seem to have worn crampons. 

Nevertheless, when properly designed and skilfully 



160 THE ICE-AXE, CRAMPONS, AND ROPES 

and intelligently used, crampons can be undoubtedly 
of great service, and they are being increasingly em- 
ployed, even at Chamonix and Grindelwald, the homes 
of the old ice-guides. 

A properly designed and comparatively light climb- 
ing-boot with sharp, unworn nails is, however, the best 
compromise for all-round mountaineering. In my 
opinion, at any rate, the Alpine climber who starts 
by using crampons, and employs these on every occa- 
sion, whether suitable or not, will never learn to be 
a safe and competent mountaineer. Their use I 
consider analogous to the use of kletterschuhe, or rub- 
bers — excellent for special ocasions, bad for general 
mountaineering . 

The main advantage for a party in using crampons 
is that it tends to level it up, and the worse the climbers 
the greater the advantage of crampons. For the leader 
or leaders, who, though perfectly competent to walk 
up steepish slopes of hard neve without wearing cram- 
pons, would nevertheless have had to cut steps for 
their less practised followers, cranrpons are an enormous 
saving of labour, and, for the party, of time. A party 
without a competent leader on ice can often manage 
to make an icy ascent by all employing them. 

By thus permitting parties composed of people 
without " balance," and of slight mountaineering 
experience, to gain places otherwise quite out of their 
reach, crampons have been the cause of many Alpine 
fatalities of recent years. To most of the accounts of 
the loss of four young climbers is attached the note : 
" All were wearing crampons." Crampons, to these 
unfortunates, have been the analogues of the mountain 
railway, which unloads incompetents on Alpine glaciers, 
to there wander about, and probably to fall into 
crevasses. 

If it is an advantage for a climber with guides, 
even if he has slight use for it, to learn the feel and 
balance of an axe before going on a high expedition, 
it is of vastly greater importance for a would-be guide- 



CRAMPONS 161 

less mountaineer to learn the use and behaviour of 
crampons on short, easy places, before joining a cram- 
poned amateur party in the ascent of a great ice-peak. 
Hard spring neve at home, or even the easier slopes 
in a chalk quarry, make good practice-ground. 

Probably the best place is, as with the ice-axe, the 
naked glacier near some Alpine hotel ; but, as when 
learning cutting, it should be borne in mind that ice 
varies much in texture. Spikes quite sharp enough 
for the sub-snow-line glacier, may be almost useless, 
and extremely dangerous, on really hard ice. 

The spikes of a crampon must be kept sharp. They 
will soon become blunted if used on rocks for any 
distance. After such an expedition they should be 
re-sharpened. This is best done, if the necessary skill 
is available, by "drawing down" the points with a 
small hammer, on an anvil or vice. The file is also 
effective, but wastes the metal. 

Crampons take a little time and trouble to fit on 
and strap up. This must be done carefully and 
accurately. The straps should not be drawn too tight 
at first. As the fibres become moistened by the snow 
melted by the heat of the feet, the binding contracts 
powerfully ; this may cause frost-bite, and is at least 
very uncomfortable. If leather straps are used they 
slacken when wet. 

Some crampon enthusiasts have dwelt upon the 
ease and rapidity with which the crampons can be 
put on and taken off, and have stated the exact number 
of seconds in which these operations can be performed. 
These times are, however, ideal records, and little 
likely to be attained in ordinary practice. In fact, the 
straps often become so stiff and frozen up with crusted 
snow and ice, that it is not easy, with cold fingers, to 
get them off at all. At a bivouac, or even long halt, 
they ought certainly to be taken off. Their circulation- 
stopping effect is very likely to cause frost-bite in severe 
conditions. 

The perfect crampon, to my idea, should be a set 

11 



162 THE ICE-AXE, CRAMPONS, AND ROPES 

of spikes screwed to a special boot, and should not 
have bindings at all. 1 

As mentioned in the chapter on ''Equipment," we 
should see that the crampons we buy are properly 
fitted to the boots we intend to use, and are furnished 
with not less than eight, ten are better, long sharp 
spikes placed at the edges of the boots. 

It is necessary, when walking with such crampons 
on, to lift the feet somewhat higher than usual, to 
prevent the spikes catching in the ice, and also to walk 
somewhat widely, to prevent them striking the boot, 
or catching in the stockings or puttees of the unem- 
ployed leg. When not in use, they should be placed 
in their tin folding protector. It is exceedingly un- 
pleasant to sit down on them when their business 
ends are bare. 

It is possible for the expert mountaineer, with sharp- 
nailed, narrow boots on, to walk up ice which is covered 
with an inch or two of hard snow, at an angle of 
from 30 to 33°. Crampons enable a steeper slope to 
be ascended, say 40 to 43°, above that ; even at lower 
angles if the ice was hard, and the slope long, and above 
a dangerous place, I should certainly cut steps. 

Somewhat higher angles are possible on short slopes 
where no damage would occur in the event of the cram- 
ponist losing his balance, or breaking out a step. Here 
we must work after the style of the ski-runner, and 
either adopt the " herring boning," or straddling out, 
method, or ascend side-ways as a young child climbs 
a stair. 

In a certain state of the snow the crampons can 
become a source of danger, and this condition is the 
very probable explanation of some wholesale disasters 
which have occurred to parties of young cramponed 
climbers. 

Such a party starts for the ascent of some steep ice- 
peak using crampons. The snow in the morning is 
hard and firm. They walk up easily, spend a long time 

i See " Exploration," Chapter XV. 



CRAMPONS 163 

at the top, and start down again in the afternoon. 
The snow is now, however, soft and ' ' balling ' ' ; they 
cut no steps on the ascent, and have therefore none to 
descend by, nor is it always easy for them to follow 
the line of ascent, as crampon pricks in hard neve 
soon disappear. 

Presently, perhaps suddenly, " sabots," the French- 
Swiss term, form under the feet of one of them. In 
an instant he is on his back whirling down the slope. 
The others are probably in little better case, and all go. 
Another of those wholly unnecessary " Fatal Alpine 
Catastrophes " has occurred. 

It may be said the party would stop to kick out the 
snow when it balled. Anyone who has had much 
experience with this condition, on boots, skis, or cram- 
pons, knows that on the last two it is not practically 
possible ; it is difficult enough in boots. In this condi- 
tion of the snow the crampons should be taken off, and 
reliance placed on the axe and the nailed boot. 

The Crampon on Rocks 

On moderate and easy rocks, which have become 
somewhat difficult and dangerous through being covered 
with ice and snow, crampons are of great service, more 
especially to the leader. His clearing task is for the 
most part reduced to the making of hand-holds. If, 
during the ascent of a steep ice arete, the party meet 
with a short stretch of ordinary rock work, there is no 
necessity to remove the crampons. On most standard 
Alpine routes the rock-climbing is not very difficult, 
and is easily done in crampons. It is rather a question 
of damage to the spike-points, than any advantage 
or disadvantage of the crampon over the boot. 

When the angle on ice is really steep, and steps 
have to be cut, these do not require to be so carefully 
finished for crampons as for nails ; but, as the angle 
increases, even larger steps are required for crampons 
than for boots, to give a really sound hold. It may be 



164 THE ICE-AXE, CRAMPONS, AND ROPES 

an encouragement, however, to know, that the steeper 
the angle, up to 60° at any rate, the easier it is for a 
man in ice-steps, whether wearing boots or crampons, 
to hold safely a person who slips out of a step below 
him. 

I trust nothing here written will be taken as meant 
to discourage the use of crampons in any way. I am 
too conscious of the great assistance they have often 
been to me ; but the crampon, like the Alpine rope, is 
in some danger of becoming a fetish, to cover up bad, 
and dangerous, mountaineering. 

We might sum up the case for crampons thus : 

(1) On most ordinary Alpine climbs crampons are 
not required. 

(2) On peaks in bad condition, and especially on 
rocks, they are of great service, and conduce to safety 
and time-saving. 

(3) On long, icy, or new climbs, with only one com- 
petent step-cutter in the party, their use is essential to 
success. 

HOW TO USE THE ROPE 

Contrary to what is often believed by the non- 
climbing public, the rope is rarely in constant use during 
a climb. 

It is often a source of great puzzlement to these how 
it is used. It is easy enough, they say, to understand 
how the last two men can climb up the rope, but how 
on earth does the first man manage ? If you reply 
that he does not manage " on earth," but, as he is 
always an " adept," he simply throws the rope up 
into the air, and then ascends it, they may think, 
with justice, that you are chaffing them. 

Mountaineers are, of course, rock and ice, not rope 
climbers : the thin, hard, Alpine rope, or thinner and 
harder line is badly adapted for such a purpose. 

By far the most important function of the rope is 
the conversion of a party into a single unit. The 





BOWLINE KNOT. 




BOWLIXE OX A BI'iHT. 



L6S 



THE ROPE 



165 



putting on of the rope is the taking out of an insurance 
policy. A rope will not always prevent an accident 
happening to a member, but, properly worked by the 
others, the rope should always be able to greatly limit, 
or entirely obviate, any ill effects of a slip or fall. 

The rope also helps to level up a party. A compe- 
tent leader, with the aid of the rope, can easily enable 
a party to make a safe ascent of a diffi- 
cult climb, which none of the others 
would be capable of accomplishing, or 
justified in attempting, without him. 
Numerous illustrations of the use of the 
rope are given in the typical climbing 
chapters of this volume. Here are given 
some general instructions and hints how 
to care for, handle, and employ a rope 
on a climb. 

The rope, when new, will be found to 
kink badly when wet. This is a trouble- 
some trait, but is really the sign of a 
good rope. 

It should be stretched, but the stretch- 
ing must not be overdone so that all the 
liveliness of the rope is lost. If the 
whipping comes off, or if for any purpose 
the rope is cut, see that the loose end is 
whipped promptly, otherwise a lot of the rope will 
become unwound and spoiled. 

Do not be satisfied with tying a clumsy, ragged knot 
on the end of the rope ; this looks very slovenly, and 
will always be in the way. No permanent loop or 
knot should be on the rope at all. 




Wmpprs-G. 



To Carry 

The most convenient shape to carry a rope is in the 
form of a coil or wreath. The head and one arm are 
thrust through the wreath, and it is hung on the 
opposite shoulder. 



166 THE ICE-AXE, CRAMPONS, AND ROPES 

The method of making the coil which gives the 
correct size is as follows : The man who is to carry the 
rope sits down, and the rope is coiled with the lay, 
under the instep and over the knee. When all is 
coiled, except about four or five feet, the loose end is 
then twisted with the lay, and wound spirally round 
the coil, holding it firmly together, and binding in the 
other loose end left at the beginning of the coiling. 
The wreath is then secured by taking about half the 
coil's thickness, and finishing off with a clove-hitch. 

Another way of carrying is en boudin, a favourite 
method in Dauphine. The rope is made up in the 
way clothes-ropes are sold, and hung over one shoulder 
by the last loop. 

Still another is in a chain of loops which all run out 
on the final one being unfastened. 

On taking down a rope for active service, it will save 
time and considerable annoyance if the binding-in 
portion is completely uncoiled first. If even one fold 
crosses, tangles are probable, especially with a new and 
lively rope. 

If two ropes have to be joined at any time, this should 
be done with the fisherman's, or the figure-of-eight 
knot ; these weaken the rope least. 

Two parties should never, on any account, be joined 
up by fastening the rope of the second party round the 
waist-loop, or the waist, of any following member of the 
first. 

These methods do not really convert the parties 
into one. They take away from the leader of the 
first party his rightful and dutiful control over the 
rope, and pass it round what may easily be the weakest 
member of the whole. He is now the real leader of 
the second party, or, more properly perhaps, a midway 
hitch or " belay." 

An absolute rule should be : " All central members 
in a climbing party, whether on steep ice, on rocks, or 
on a snow-coverecl glacier, should lie in a loop of the 
rope, and off the direct line of strain from either end." 




MIDDLEMAN KXOT. 




I I 

3IAX-HITCH, OE HAEXESS KNOT. 






KNOTS 167 

If this is not done the leaders risks are not only- 
transferred to the " Piton," but are aggravated. If 
he is on the rope with a fisherman's or middleman's 
knot, this normally " running knot to hold " may act 
as a slip-knot. A slip or fall otherwise almost inno- 
cuous, may result in severe internal injuries. If he 
or the man in front or behind both slip into a crevasse, 
or are in suspension on a rock face, and he is the higher, 
the lower man cannot be hauled up without transmitting 
the strain through the " Piton's " anatomy. 

Knots 

Only a few knots are commonly used by climbers, 
and these are of the simplest. It is rather surprising 
that so few mountaineers care to take the small amount 
of trouble necessary to learn how to make them. 
It is, of course, by no means easy to learn " knotting 
and splicing " from diagrams, a few lessons from an 
old sailor or fisherman make the methods employed 
clearer. An endeavour has here been made to show, 
in the diagrams, how the ropes run in forming the 
various knots. 

Boivline. — This is the best knot to use for end 
climbers. It is quickly made, simple, and never jams, 
so is very easily undone. It is rather apt to work 
loose. This must be prevented by taking a half hitch, 
as shown, or an overhand knot. 

Boivline on a Bight. — This is the same knot as the 
last/ but formed in a loop of the rope : the best knot, 
in my opinion, for " middlemen," especially if less 
robust than usual. Also the best knot for a party of 
two. Three other knots may be used for middlemen. 

Fisherman's, or Middleman 's Knot. — The knot has 
been condemned for the reason that it partakes of 
the nature of a slipknot, or noose: this is quite. true. 
In actual practice, however, I have seen it used many 
hundreds of times ; I never once saw it show any 
tendency to act as a noose The only way, I think, 



168 THE ICE-AXE, CRAMPONS, AND ROPES 

it might be caused to act thus, is if the rope of a follow- 
ing party were to be fastened to the waist-loop of a 
middleman. This is utterly wrong for several reasons, 
and should never be done. 

Man-hitch. — Called also a harness-knot. It is a 
military loop, and, as the diagram shows, extremely 
simple. I have not had any experience with it in 
climbing. Probably it would work loose too easily. 

Overhand. — A knot almost always used by guides 
for middlemen climbers. It is very easily tied. This 
has been condemned as a bad knot by some authorities. 
Others have said that its survival proves that it cannot 
be a bad knot. A point against it is that it weakens 
the rope more than the other knots. It certainly does 
not slip : its chief fault, in fact, is jamming. After 
a day in wet snow round a heavy body, it is often a 
matter of great pain and labour to get it off at all. 
Sometimes this proves impossible, and it has to be 
cut. For those climbers possessed of an isthmus I 
consider it an unsuitable knot. For the middleman 
of geodetic figure, whose^torrid zone is his greatest 
circumference, difficulty of extraction will, of course, 
not arise. 

Clove-hitch. — May be described as two jamming 
half-hitches. It is exceedingly simple, yet holds in 
a marvellous fashion, and at the same time is most 
quickly and easily undone. It is useful for hoisting 
ice-axes, either singly or in bundles, for holding securely 
the rungs of an improvised ladder, or for making a 
stretcher for an injured person. It is made with either 
a bight or the free end of a rope with equal facility. 

Triple Bowline is an ordinary bowline made on a 
doubled rope. It is by far the best knot to form loops 
for the carriage of an ill or injured person. If it is at 
all possible to avoid it, no one who is at all injured 
should be hauled or suspended by a single loop. The 
triple bowline gives three, and these can be adjusted 
in length to suit, say, one under the arms, one under 
the hips, and the third under the knees. 




OVEEHAND KNOT. TEIPLE BOWLINE 






DOUBLE FIGURE-OF- 
EIGHT KNOT. 



SHEET FISHERMAN'S 

BEND. JOINING- KNOT. 



[169 



KNOTS 169 



Knots foe Joining Two Ropes 

Fisherman's Joining Knot. — The same knot as the 
middleman, but made with free ends of rope. This is 
the handiest joining knot for the climber : it is easily 
made, weakens the rope very little, and also unfastens 
easily, yet at the same time is secure. Security can be 
doubly ensured by taking half-hitches with the free 
end? : but, if these are not left too short, and the two 
shcling-knots are pulled up tightly against each other, 
this is not really necessary. 

Double Figure-of-eight Knot. — This is a very secure 
knot, but more difficult to make than the last, and is, 
when made, somewhat large and clumsy. 

Sheet-bend. — A very simple joining for temporary 
purposes, such as sending up a spare rope or line, 
fastening a climbing-rope to a thick fixed rope, and 
so on. It will hold still better, and be less liable to 
jam. if the straight rope's end is passed twice round 
the loop before the hitch is made. 

X.B. — The reef-knot should never be used for climb- 
ing purposes. It is really a slipping knot. This 
becomes very apparent if we seek to unite by it two 
ropes of different thicknesses. 

If one wishes to realise the difference between sus- 
pension on a single loop of Alpine rope, or on two, the 
bowline on a bight, or three, the triple bowline, let 
him make the following experiment. 

First put on a single bowline loop. Xow pass the 
rope over a strong door, and stand on the toes, drawing 
up the rope tight. Put a wedge under the door for 
the sake of the hinges. Xow pull up the legs and hang 
in the loop round the waist. Few will endure this 
for much longer than one'minute. Xow try again with 
the bowline"on" ! "a r bight. or. better, the triple bowline. 
With the latter, one might almost go to sleep as in a 
hammock : that is. if very tired. 



170 THE ICE-AXE, CRAMPONS, AND ROPES 



Handling Ropes 

Ropes on glaciers and easy places do not give much 
trouble, even with novices, and when new themselves. 
The only points to observe are that each member keeps 
his distance, and takes up his part of the rope when 
shortening it, carrying it in coils in the left hand, so 
as to keep it from getting sodden, wet, and disagreeable 
to handle. On rocks of some difficulty the new rope 
will often develop a certain liveliness when it perceives 
it has novices to deal with. It will catch at every 
jutting rock, it will get under and pull down loose 
stones. It will even coil itself round the body, arms, 
and legs of the climbers, till, as someone has put it, 
the famous group of the Laocoon is irresistibly sug- 
gested. 

The reason of this behaviour is simply want of atten- 
tion on the climber's part. 

At first, when climbing places of any difficulty, the 
mountaineer requires all the attention he has to bestow, 
devoted to the holds for his hands, and feet. With 
practice it becomes easy to manage with less handhold : 
the rope can be looked after as well. One of the chief 
advantages for the novice climber, of a party of three, 
consisting of himself and two good guides, or friends, is 
that he then does not require to look after the rope, 
but, if he always continues to climb in this manner, 
the probability is that he will never learn to do so. 
If a party consists of only two, both must look after 
the rope. A dangerous, clumsy way of shortening a 
rope, yet one, it would appear from photographs, which 
is often done by guides — I have seen it done by Dolomite 
guides — is for the leader to coil the portion not required 
round his shoulders, and then hold the rope in his 
hands. The correct method is for the leader, or last 
man, first to untie, then put himself on the rope again 
with a middleman knot, leaving the portion not 
required as a free end to be coiled round his shoulders. 





a 3? 



253 

33 



*8 






HANDLING ROPES 171 

Thus the hands are left at liberty, and the rope does 
not get in the way. 

Doubling ropes is not advisable. It is then very 
difficult to prevent them catching, and, generally 
speaking, the trouble of looking after them is much 
more than doubled. 

The climbing up of ropes has been dismissed as not 
practical politics for mountaineers. There are no 
fixed ropes to my knowledge in the Alps, where more is 
done than use these as aids in climbing up the rocks ; 
and the same holds good for descents. 

There are many places, on very difficult climbs, 
where a rope may be employed to secure or aid the 
descent of the last man of a party. " Abseiling'' — by 
which I mean the descent of overhanging places by the 
rope alone — is very rarely necessary, and is, perhaps, 
a doubtfully legitimate method of mountaineering. 
Not that this method is difficult in itself. An absolute 
ignoramus at climbing, who is something of an athlete, 
will find no trouble in descending even a loose rope, and 
of course, if the rope is long enough, it can be made 
double, and held by the others below. If the distance 
is short it is sufficient to grasp the rope with both 
hands, and coil it once spirally round the thigh. If 
higher than a dozen feet or so, an easy method is to 
pass a loop over one foot and stand on this, bringing 
the rope up the front of the body, and over the 
shoulders below the coat collar. This takes nearly 
all the strain off the arms, and transfers it to the leg 
and shoulders. 

As mentioned above, this sort of rope-use will very 
rarely be found necessary. The traverse from the 
Grand to the Petit Dru is sometimes cited as a climb 
involving a descent of this kind. This is not so, how- 
ever. The Cheminee en Z on the north-east edge of 
the higher peak can be descended in the usual way 
in which such a steep rock and ice-chimney is managed. 

It may be said that the best climbing-party, and the 
best climbing, is where actual need of a rope is experi- 



172 THE ICE-AXE, CRAMPONS, AND ROPES 

enced least. Yet aid from a member above to one 
below him, is often very easily given, saves time, 
and the lower member's strength, and, if it is to the 
advantage of the whole party, should not be lightly 
refused. Especially for the last man, who is probably 
the heaviest loaded, is some slight assistance from the 
rope due, to put him on fair terms with the others. 
The generally short reach, and weaker arms, of ladies 
and children, should also have full consideration. 
Usually a quite small amount of tension on the rope, 
" holding," not " pulling," will be sufficient. 

The rope's main function is always the prevention 
of a slight slip or loss of balance from developing 
serious consequences, and for this purpose constant 
vigilance and care on the part of everyone is all that 
is required. 

Ropes should be examined after every climb for 
injuries. If a new rope gets damaged at one place it 
may be cut through, rewhipped, and used in two portions 
or repaired with a long splice by an expert. If well 
done the repaired rope will still possess 90 per cent, of 
the strength of the old, and will pass through a ring, 
or over a block-pulley of the same size as before injury. 

Ropes should not be put away in a close place when 
damp. The following incident may help to point this 
moral. 

My rucksack, containing boots and a very wet rope, 
was taken away by mistake by another climber at a 
climbing-meet, and I did not get it back for ten days 
or so. The rope seemed then dry and all right. 

About two months afterwards, I was showing a 
friend some sea-birds' breeding haunts on cliffs about 
200 feet high. As he wished a few guillemot's eggs, I 
put a walking-stick into the turf, looped a rope over 
it, and prepared to descend. In fixing the rope I 
bent it sharply, when it at once broke half-way through. 
It proved to be thoroughly rotten, and unable to bear 
a strain of more than 50 pounds. 

All vegetable fibres are very easily attacked by 



HANDLING ROPES 173 

mould fungi. This is probably the reason why the 
St. Kildan bird-catchers, in their very damp climate, 
preferred ropes of twisted horsehair. l 

A climbing-rope should therefore be left loose, and 
not be put away until thoroughly dry. 

For convenience of measurement, it is a good plan 
to mark the centre of one's rope with a small piece of 
waxed string, or very narrow silk ribbon, passed through 
one of the strands. 

I have hitherto dealt with the physical uses of the 
rope for mountaineering. The rope's use is very much 
more important than that. It is the physical sign 
of the thread of will and mental effort which connects 
the members of a roped party, and of them makes a 
single unit. The " moral " assistance of the rope has 
been spoken and written of in a half chaffing manner ; 
its moral assistance is very real. Its putting on puts, 
as it were, everyone on their mettle. The leader's 
responsibility may be greatest, but the rope distributes 
part of this responsibility among every member, while 
at the same time giving just the confidence and courage 
required, to enable the less practised, or more diffident 
climbers, to do themselves justice. 

The best definition which I can give of this use of 
the climbing-rope is, that in a moral and physical sense 
the rope represents V esprit du corps. 

1 St. Kilda, by Norman Heathcote. 



CHAPTER XIII 

SOME TECHNICALITIES 

" La meilleure mesure d' assurance contre les dangers c'est la 
connaisance de la technique Alpine." — Maurice Paiixon. 

Some students of mountaineering may have wondered 
why, in this volume, I have not devoted a long and 
detailed chapter to the " Dangers of Mountaineering." 
These have been treated of very fully by some writers, 
indeed whole volumes on " The Dangers of the Alps " 
have been published in various languages, as well as 
many articles. It would almost seem as if some of 
the writers on this theme were inspired by the motive 
which moved the famous "fat boy" in Pickwick, 
" I wants ter make yer flesh creep." 

For the causes of the accidents, which they love to 
recount with so much wealth of detail, they usually 
blame everything but the fundamental cause. 

Some will declare, " It was, of course, because the 
party was without guides," or they blame the rashness 
of youth, climbing under bad conditions, and so on. 
In reality, however, the vast majority of accidents are 
not due to any of these superficial, accessory causes, 
but to ignorance of climbing technique. 

In putting a disproportionate emphasis on mountain- 
eering dangers and accidents, I think these writers 
made a serious mistake. 

The youthful climbers of Britain, her Colonies and 
Dominions, and of America, are at any rate of sufficient 
independence of mind to resent the low estimate put 
upon their reason and common sense by this undue 

174 



MOUNTAINEERING BALANCE 175 

dwelling on and pointing out of what, after all, are very 
obvious dangers. 

As Koheleth said, it is not in youth but in later life 
that we most dread " that which is high." For the 
youthful climber who soon overcomes his first fear of 
that which is high, a knowledge of climbing technique 
is the very best accident insurance policy, and, unlike 
ordinary insurance policies, its benefits are preventive 
and anticipatory, and not merely retrospective and 
palliative. 

The continual harping on the danger note tends 
also to defeat its own ends. The youthful climber, 
after a first season in the Alps, with guides, when not 
a single dangerous incident, such as he had been led 
to believe was inseparable from the sport, had occurred, 
is apt to rush to the other extreme. He is apt to think, 
with Tartarin, that climber's tales are, like the pro- 
verbial traveller's, to be taken with more than a grain 
of salt. Thus the opposite effect to what the writer 
intended, the necessity of care and training, may be 
produced. 

The technique of mountaineering means the practical 
application of the principles of mountaineering art, 
and of course cannot be learned except by practice. 
An endeavour is made in this chapter to bring together, 
discuss, and illustrate a large number of " pointers " 
on mountaineering technique. 



Mountaineering Balance 

Balance is the supreme characteristic of the 
" compleat " mountaineer. Without it no man, what- 
ever his list of peaks and passes, is entitled to be called 
a good, that is, a safe, mountaineer. His position 
on the climbing-rope should always be between two 
good guides, or skilled friends. If he is allowed to 
lead accident is invited. 

It is difficult to explain exactly what is meant by 
balance. It has nothing to do with the ability, say, to 



176 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

look down unmoved from such a position as a window- 
ledge. It does not imply immobility. It rather 
denotes an unusual quickness of brain telegraphy, and 
a corresponding rapidity in the execution of orders 
by the muscles and limbs. 

It is well known to surgeons that people do not 
sprain their ankles when they are looking for this to 
happen, say in walking on steep, rough ground. The 
reason is, that special watch is kept by the brain over 
the ankle muscles. In mountaineering balance, all 
the muscles are on the qui vive all the time. 

At first the watch is kept consciously by the higher 
powers of the brain and nerve-centres. This is the 
real cause of the disproportionate bodily and mental 
fatigue felt on a difficult climb by the novice, even 
though a much more powerful man, and doing far less 
work, than his experienced leader. 

With practice, the control is largely turned over by 
the higher brain-powers to the lower or sub-conscious. 
These do not suffer to anything like the same degree 
from fatigue. 

It might thus seem that " balance " is nothing but 
practice. This is not so, however. A certain degree 
can be acquired by practice. 

The highest rank as mountaineers can only be at- 
tained by those who have added persevering practice 
to natural innate ability. A man with innate balance 
can become a first-rate, safe mountaineer, though he 
never sees a hill before the age of thirty or more, while 
a man wholly without the natural quality, must practise 
long and hard, and even then will never rise beyond 
second-class. Though the movements are so different, 
yet skating furnishes the closest analogy to moun- 
taineering, and the above remarks apply with equal 
force to both sports and modes of travel. 

Skating is the best training for the would-be moun- 
taineer. Its main secret is the same. The acquisition 
of the power of altering the balance quickly in any 
desired direction without losing control of it. It 



SURE-FOOTEDNESS 177 

follows that a good skater, or ski-runner, is already 
more than half a climber. 

SURE-FOOTEDNESS 

A stumble means a loss of balance, clumsily re- 
covered, with a loss of time, and an enormous expendi- 
ture of energy. 

A practised mountaineer hardly ever stumbles. 
If he does happen to make a false step, through a stone 
turning under his foot, or such-like, he does not struggle 
against the temporary loss of balance. He accepts it, 
and hastens to correct it by yielding to it, usually 
in the form of an increase in pace. He treats the 
erring foot as out of action, and drags it after the other 
till it is swung in front again. Usually the even flow 
of the walk or run is hardly interfered with. 

Professor John Ball, F.R.S., in dealing with this 
subject in the preface to the Alpine Guide, writes : 
" Sure-footedness consists in two things : firstly, in 
observing the spot where the foot is to rest ; and, 
secondly, in bringing it down at once." 

With the first of these conditions I am in accord, if 
we add that the observation must be well in advance, 
and be automatic. If the observation is a forced one it 
will not result in true sure-footedness. The moment the 
attention is diverted, say by conversation, stumbling 
is liable to occur. The subconsciousness must be 
in charge, leaving the higher free for other things. 

.With the second I am wholly in disagreement. It 
is just the ability not to have to bring the foot down at 
once which constitutes mountain balance and the sure- 
footed person. 

As in skating — though in walking this is, of course, 
very instantaneous — the mountaineer is really balanced 
on one foot, and should have the power of dealing with 
the unemployed foot in any way which may suit the 
case and the balance best. 

A supreme example of mountain balance is given 

12 



178 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

by the chamois. When caught in a difficult place 
among rocks, I have seen this graceful little antelope 
do marvellous " banking turns," by springing sideways 
against almost vertical rocks, almost like a billiard- 
ball off its cushion. When a guide calls his employer 
a "chamois" it may not be out of a desire to natter 
him. The guide may recognise that his Monsieur has 
the innate balance which he knows is highest de- 
veloped in the little animal. 

An expert on mountains will run lightly and easily 
across a tract of boulders, keeping on the surface as it 
were, which the novice will only pass through with slow 
pace and many stops and restarts. The expert may 
disturb stones ; this does not worry him. Long before 
the stone has made up its mind to move, his weight 
has been transferred to another stone and another foot : 
what the stone left then does is of no consequence. A 
similar principle is utilised by the balance mountaineer 
in crossing a torrent in which boulders project at six- 
feet intervals. A pause on any one boulder would 
probably result in the boulder upsetting, or the traveller 
losing his balance, with wet results in either case. 

The supreme importance of balance is best brought 
out in mountaineering on new peaks, and on the grand- 
est scale. 

In the comprehensive rule for mountaineering which 
will be found in the chapter on " Ethics and Rules," 
conservation of energy is mentioned as the first and 
most important part of mountaineering. The power 
of this conservation is to a very large extent dependent 
upon the acquiring and possession of mountaineering 
" balance." 

The Mountain Walk 

The ideal bounding step of the mountaineer is, as a 
fact, only exhibited on the descent. The best style 
up-hill is not a graceful one. It is a kind of roll from 
the hips, from side to side. The feet are planted flat. 



THE MOUNTAIN WALK 179 

Using the toes is avoided as much as possible. The 
feet are not lifted, but dragged up alternately. Zig- 
zagging pays best in the long run. Of course the young 
and the unburdened may often find it easy to mount 
directly up a slope, which another, loaded down with 
a heavy rucksack, or, worse still, the " howdah '' l of 
forty or fifty years, finds too steep for him, but it is 
well to bear in mind that, in cycling phrase, the gear 
should be lowered as the angle increases. Shorter 
steps ought to be taken, the rate of stepping should 
be decreased. Otherwise we may be mounting twice 
as fast, and of course putting out twice as much energy, 
in the same time, and it is an old and a true saying 
that it is pace that kills. The Italian proverb in 
this connection is the best known : ;t Chi va sono, va 
piano, chi va piano, va lontano." Similar phrases 
of proverbial philosophy occur in other languages. 

Zigzagging not only eases the gradient and allows 
a steady uniform pace to be kept up : it also best 
distributes the strain over the muscles employed. 

Some start hill-climbing on the rush-and-rest system. 
They will find this twice as exhausting, and no faster 
in the end, than a steady, somewhat slow, even j>ace, 
with few or no halts whatever. The great secret for 
a party of mountaineers engaged on a long, hard climb 
is to make the pace not too fast for the slowest and 
weakest member. As a rule, therefore, the larger 
the party the slower it is. This does not only apply 
to difficult rock-climbs, but to everywhere on the 
heights, except where deep soft snow is encountered, 
when the killing task of leading can be wider spread. 

1 The Rev. John Jackson, of Whitehaven, an enthusiast of the 
Pillar Rock, in Ennerdale, Cumberland, and who climbed it alone, 
in 1875, at the age of eighty, wrote some verses commemorative of 
the expedition. The following verse shows a wit as supple as must 
have been the old gentleman's limbs : 

" Two elephantine properties are mine, 
For I can bend to pick up pin or plack, 
And when this year the Pillar Rock I climb, 
Four-score and two's the howdah on my back." 



180 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

An alpenstock, or ice-axe, if the latter has not too short 
a shaft, is a very considerable help in walking on steep 
slopes of any kind. In ascending, the hip and thigh 
muscles can be relieved by transferring a certain 
amount of the load to those of the shoulders and arms. 1 
The ultra short-shafted axe will here exhibit its real 
useless, not to say dangerous, character. Fully 90 
per cent, of mountaineering is done at moderate angles. 
The most important rule of climbing and walking on 
any slope is, " Stand up straight." The man who uses 
the short axe will not do this ; he will be in traverses 
and descents^ frequently off his balance, leaning to- 
wards the slope. He will fall often, or put enormous 
strains upon his arms. He will, in fact, be forced into 
the attitudes of the bad and timid ski-runner, or the 
duffer glissader. 

In traversing and descending, we hold the shaft more 
or less horizontally against the slope above, and can 
arrange the balance so that there is never any chance 
of falling down-hill. 

It is, as a matter of fact, not easy to fall down-hill. 
If we slip we really fall up-hill. The only way in which 
falling down-hill on a slope is probable is if, while going 
fast, we get a toe under a projecting stone which is 
fixed. This may result in a bad fall. The small bone 
of the leg, the fibula, is apt to break under the sudden 
strain. I remember, years ago, taking a heavy toss 
from this cause, which partly from good luck, partly 
perhaps from Rugby football training, resulted in not 
the slightest damage. 

I was running rather fast down a steep hill-side, 
Glyder Fach in Wales, when my toe caught as above, 
but only momentarily. As I flew into the air, I 
tucked in my head and curled up, and, alighting yards 
below on my shoulders, whirled round, and was on my 
feet and running rather faster than at first before 
I had quite realised what had happened. Next to 
skating, perhaps Rugby is the best training for 

1 See Chapter II. p 22. 




r? 






m 



ON CLIMBING 181 

mountaineering ; at any rate, the work of the 
halves. 

The axe may occasionally be used in front when 
jumping down, from rest to rest, some small rock or 
steepish place : but. as a rule, the axe should be behind 
one in going down-hill. 

In descending it is often easier, if the slope is steep, 
to run. This applies especially to steep grass, to snow 
just not steep enough to glissade, and to small scree. 

For a quick, easy descent, nothing beats fine scree. 
It is best descended in long cantering bounds. Here 
the landing shock is so much softened, both by the 
looseness of the material and by its running away on 
receiving the foot, that it is little felt. 

The run, of course, must be continuous. A slip or 
incipient stumble must be. as it were, caught up by 
increased pace. 



Ox Climb ix g 

Climbing up Rod:-?. — It is natural, when climbing is 
mentioned, to thmk of climbing up. We also climb up 
trees, and, by the way. tree-climbing is excellent practice 
for the mountaineer. Here, as on rocks, the legs do 
the greater part of the work. This is the great differ- 
ence between man and the monkey on trees. At the 
top of our tree we cannot, as a rule, walk away easily, 
we must again climb down. 

We are always told by climbing authorities never 
to climb up into a place from which we cannot descend, 
and we occasionally hear of adventures and accidents 
happening to youthful climbers who have got them- 
selves stuck in this fashion. 

The advice will not be required by, and the position 
will not occur to. anyone who practises climbing down 
as much as he does climbing up. In climbing up. the 
holds, especially small flat ledges, appear to be better 
than when climbing down. In reality . such a hold 



182 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

rapidly decreases in security as the weight is drawn up 
level with it. On the descent, of course, the hold 
improves, and much less force is necessary. 

There is comfort and confidence to some, in climbing 
up, from having the face and body close to the rock. 
The vision of the dej>ths can be at will shut out. The 
hands, the members of more trained intelligence, come 
first in contact with the holds, and seek the route. 
The feet have only to follow their lead, and can at a 
pinch be dragged up by them. On the whole, it must 
be acknowledged that, for the inexpert, non-leader 
mountaineer, climbing up is the most attractive, 
simplest, and easiest. It does not follow that for the 
expert, or that in fact, it is really the easiest. 

Climbing down. — It is quite a common thing for 
Alpine and other climbers, of long and wide experience, 
to hold that climbing down is more difficult than climb- 
ing up. 

The reason for this belief is, that almost all those 
holding it have been accustomed to occupying second, 
third, or non-leading positions on the rope, have 
always had a rope above them at really difficult places, 
and are therefore not competent to judge properly. 
Those leaders, if any, who hold the belief, would seem 
to exhibit the fact that their training in climbing has 
been one-sided. They have almost always done their 
climbs up. 

In reality, for the expert, climbing down is easier, 
much quicker, and very much less fatiguing. If the 
climb is steep and difficult, climbing down is also much 
safer, as a rope can be used for security. 

A point which has perhaps tended to obscure the 
relative difficulty or ease of certain long and hard rock 
climbs in the Alps is this. A good guide can safely 
conduct a party of two strong, active amateurs up 
such a climb. He, however, declines, saying, " The 
descent is too difficult." He does not mean for him- 
self : he really means that he cannot steer the two 
amateurs on the descent, and he knows that this would 




DESCENDING A 






FACING AND TRAVERSING 183 

mean a night out, from the inability of the leading 
amateur to find the way. 

It may be said that, granted the actual climbing on 
the descent is easier, yet descending is more difficult 
from the greater difficulty of finding hand-holds, foot- 
holds, and the way. 

For a real expert these reasons do not hold good. 
He will pick up or recognise the descending equally 
well with the ascending route. If the pitches are very 
steep, with scanty holds, it is very easy neglecting 
these altogether. It is quite easy letting a man clown 
with a rope. It is an almost impossible task for one 
man to haul up another any distance. 

Face in or out on the Descent. — This is a ques- 
tion on which it would be foolish to dogmatise : it 
entirely depends upon the skill of the climber, the 
nature of the place, and the kind and quality of the 
rock. 

Face in, on all really steep places, and where perfect 
confidence in the footholds is not felt, is the best rule 
to follow. It is much slower, and involves harder 
work than the facing out, but for the ordinary climber 
is much safer. 

The death of Emil Rev of Courmayeur, one of the 
finest mountaineers who ever lived, occurred through 
his jumping down, face out, a small, easy place on the 
rocks below the Aiguille du Geant : but in this case 
the accident was almost certainly due to the boots 
worn. These were furnished with three long spikes 
in the heel, which would certainly get blunted and 
dangerous on rocks. 

Traversing, — A traverse is usually done when the 
direct route becomes impossible, or too difficult. 
Traverses, therefore, as a rule, though they may be 
technically quite easy, are often sensational and trying 
to unaccustomed or nervous climbers. 
* This is the reason for the entirely false reputation 
for extreme difficulty which attaches to some easy 
traverses on certain Dolomite climbs. For instance, 



184 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

that of the Kleine Zinne, or the kt Thumb " route on 
the Funffinger, or Cinque I)ita. The rope on these 
cannot be held, or hauled, from above. The apparent 
danger is therefore great, on these traverses, to the 
novice. 

One is advised, when beginning a traverse, to note 
carefully the foot with which to commence. The 
advice is sound, but of little use except for extremely- 
short passages. It is usually quite impossible to 
tell what is the best position of the feet for more than 
a step or two, and the best position for six-foot A may 
quite easily be impossible for short-legged five-and-a- 
half B. 

The huge, wide, clumsy boot by which the climbers 
who gave the advice were handicapped, probably 
influenced them. The modern rockman in light, 
narrow boots, finds it quite easy, if any finger-holds 
exist at all, to change the position of the feet by means 
of a slight, almost imperceptible jump. 

The man who can stand easily on one foot and move 
the other .freely in any direction, without losing his 
balance, or having to grip tightly — figure-skating is 
perhaps the highest form of this — will find, once he is 
free from the mental dread of heights, most ordinary 
traverses quite easy. 

There are, however, in the latest developments of 
rock-climbing, especially in the English Lake district, 
certain traverses so difficult, that I consider no novice 
should ever be taken over these, and they should never 
be led, at any rate, in nailed boots. 

Hand Traverses. — It is no doubt possible for ab- 
normally athletic climbers to cross a short rock passage 
by means of the hands alone, the feet and legs being 
merely passengers. On none of the " hand traverses " 
which I have met with has this method, fortunately 
for me, been necessary. A great deal of assistance for 
the arms could always be obtained by making the* 
lower limbs do quite a lot of the work. The enormous 
value of the tiniest toe-scrape is quickest and safest 



HOLDS AND HITCHES 185 

learned in bouldering. If the rocks are at all hard and 
slabby the nailed boot should come off at a hand 
traverse. Again, the warning may be given against 
double stockings on smooth rocks. 

Holds and Hitches. — It is the presence or absence of 
adequate, reliable holds and hitches which makes a 
climb difficult and dangerous, or easy and safe. Angle 
is really of minor importance, though the fatigue in- 
volved, and, as already mentioned, the moral effect, 
cannot be ignored. 

It is when the leader is making his way up rotten 
rocks that the greatest care and attention must be 
paid by the followers to obtaining secure hitches, not 
only for his sake, but for their own. 

The climber on rotten rocks should "liquefy" his 
muscles and his movements, like a cat on broken 
bottles. His style should recall that of Agag, who, it 
is related, " walked delicately." 

A number of English rock-climbers have argued that 
the hitch taken by the second man should be behind 
him, that there should be a " clear rope " between him 
and the leader. I cannot agree with this. If the 
position is such that the leader has a clear fall of eight 
or ten feet should his holds give way, then the result 
of the " clear rope " method would be the probable 
loss of two men instead of one. I think a hitch, not 
a " belay," should be in front of the second man. 
The leader's rope should be laid over the hitch, it 
should not be " belayed." The sea term " belay," 
has x)ften been used quite wrongly by rock-climbers. 
It is an incorrect description of the hitch which should 
be used for a climber who is moving. It is quite 
legitimate to secure a second man by a belay behind 
him ; the leader's rope must be free to run out a 
certain distance over the hitch to take off the abrupt- 
ness of a check, and assist the life or elasticity of the 
rope in mitigating the shock of a fall. It follows, from 
this, that the leader should always have a somewhat 
longer rope than will just allow him to finish a pitch. 



186 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

The second man should always keep some rope in hand 
to run out as described. 

The hitch taken should not be too acute-angled. It 
is quite easy, with finger and thumb of one hand, to 
keep in suspension a twelve-stone man, whose rope is 
laid loosely over a sharp-angled hitch, if the hold be 
taken some distance below the hitch. It is really the 
hitch that supports the weight. 

If a man's weight falls from a few feet above a hitch 
of this kind, and the rope is tightly held or belayed, 
the rope may be cut as if with a knife, especially if 
somewhat old, stretched, or of woven material. 

Most excellent hitches can be got in turf ledges, 
especially if these are slightly frozen, by means of an 
ice-axe shaft. 

The turf is then the equivalent of good hard neve. 

Completely frozen turf l is very difficult material 
to deal with. Ordinary summer turf often gives very 
reliable hitches. A large gully-knife, if well driven in, 
slanted slightly backwards, and placed some distance 
from the edge of a cliff, will support a rope with the whole 
weight of a man on it. 

Here, again, it is not so much the knife that supports 
the load ; the slanted knife directs the real pressure 
on to the turf. 

It is a safe maxim for leaders, and for all climbers, to 
act on : " Never trust a single hold anywhere." One 
should always be able to feel that, should a handhold 
or foothold give way, at least two others are secure.* 

A loose hold is not necessarily to be avoided ; it may 
be impossible to get up without using it. Whether 
the loose hold stays in place or not greatly depends, 
upon how it is handled. 

It is exceedingly difficult to explain how loose holds 
should be handled : cases vary ! so I much. Generally 
one might say, " Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re." 
" The iron hand in the silken glove." No abruptness ; 
no jerks, " Tickle "the hold as you would a trout. 

1 Seep. 212. 



HOLDS AXD HITCHES 187 

Nearly all loose holds will stay in place if pressed 
down; therefore all pulling out must be carefully 
avoided. 

Holds such as turf, heather, and grass tufts, so 
common on new British climbs, have been condemned 
as hopelessly bad and unreliable by many Alpine 
authorities in the past. 

These, however, can be used safely, and there is 
quite as much art in doing so. as there is in judging the 
condition of doubtful snow on the great peaks of the 
world. 

Much climbing on oft-travelled routes is apt to 
induce a certain carelessness about holds. This is 
one of the drawbacks to the proper training in moun- 
taineering on many of the Lakeland, Welsh, or even 
Dolomite climbs. These routes have been gone over 
so often, loose stones have all been pulled out and 
thrown down, every hold is so tested and so secure, 
that too easy a mind as regards the safety of climbing 
on really steep rocks is apt to be induced. Xearly all 
these " courses " are very much easier and safer than 
when first done. 

On a few climbs, both at home and abroad, the case 
has been reversed. Two of these may be instanced : 
one in Cumberland, the Napes Xeedle ; the other, the 
third long chimney on the Grepon above Chamonix. 
Here years of scraping by iron-shod boots has made 
these ascents decidedly more difficult by removing 
the original roughness of the sloping footholds. 

-Holds and hitches in snow and ice are generally 
made by the ice-axe, either using the weapon directly, 
or they are made by one or other of its working edges. 

Perfect hitches are obtained in hard snow l at any 
angle it will lie. by means of the well- driven- in. slightly- 
slanting-up-hill axe-shaft. 

Fairly good hitches can be obtained on ice. by laying 
the rope over the pick, which has been stuck in a hole 
cut for it in the slope above, about level with the waist. 
* See Chapter VI. 



188 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

It is, however, better and safer to use the spike here, 
and treat the axe as a prop or strut, and not as a tie ; 
that is if the angle is below 60°. 

Absolutely strong and reliable holds for hands and 
feet can be cut with pick and adze in British neve, 
also in Alpine hard snow. In ice also good footholds 
and handholds can be cut, but the labour is long and 
hard. 

Handholds in ice require very careful cutting, as 
they must be made with a deep inward slant, and the 
edge is very apt to be destroyed by any impatience 
towards the finish. 

The manufacture or enlargement of a single foothold 
on a rock-climb, has sometimes rendered a passage 
possible, or much easier, which was previously im- 
possible or very difficult. Two well-known instances 
of this are to be found in the English Lake district, 
the "Collie Step," in Mossgill, on Scafell, and the 
exposed step down, round the corner from the blocked 
chimney, on the " New West " climb, on the Pillar 
Rock, in Ennerdale. Neither of these places should, 
however, be treated with levity. I have seen a man 
come off the former, and though, with a rope, the con- 
sequences were merely unpleasant, they might easily 
be serious. It is also true, that I have twice seen ladies 
leading on the second of these places, with smiling 
nonchalance, but both were experienced climbers, with 
small feet and neat boots. 



Artificial Climbing Aids 

We cannot, I fear, utterly condemn these en bloc 
Some purists might say that a helping hand extended 
to a less experienced friend on a simple, ropeless climb 
was artificial aid to him. 

Some fanatic devotees of the Alpine rope might be 
scandalised if it were hinted that the Alpine rope itself 
was often a very obvious artificial aid. 




A VERTICAL POSE. BASALT, 



ARTIFICIAL CLIMBING AIDS 189 

The more generally considered artificial aids are, 
however, those which have been tried in order to get 
the first man past a difficulty. 

In olden climbing times it was often customary to 
carry ladders or long poles, in order to make bridges 
over crevasses or bergschrunds. These devices are 
still permanently employed in certain frequented 
places : for instance, on the route up to the Grand 
Mulets Hut on Mont Blanc. Ladders have also been 
tried, and used, mostly the former, on rocks — notably 
in the long siege laid by Mr. Dent and his guides to 
the Grand Dru. 

Peaks inaccessible, or supposed to be so, have been 
lassoed, attacked with crossbows, 1 and rockets, by 
mining out and fixing of permanent iron stanchions, 2 
or, more simply and cunningly, the guides, after mining 
holes, have used removable pegs of iron, so that they 
may keep their peak locked till the admission fee has 
been paid. 3 In most of these cases these methods 
have proved unnecessary after all. The Aiguille du 
Geant can be climbed on another side without touching 
the iron bars, or the ropes with which it is so freely 
festooned. 

A great deal of time and energy has sometimes been 
employed by a party in endeavouring to throw a rope 
up to catch on some projection above, with or without 
a stone attached. This has occasionally proved success- 
ful on short pitches. It is a very dangerous method, 
as it is impossible to make certain that a rope caught 
thus will still hold when the angle of strain becomes 
altered as the climber hauls himself up. 

Mr. Whymper describes a device for thus projecting 
a rope above the climber. It consisted of a kind of 
grapnel, or claw, which was to be pushed up on the 
end of an alpenstock and dropped on a ledge, or into 
a crack. The climber was then supposed to swarm up 

1 Aiguille de la Republique, Grand Charmoz. 

2 Aiguille du Geant, above the Mer de Glace. 

3 Pointe de Lepena, Pralognon, Tarentaise. 



190 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

the rope. It seems impossible to make out that this 
was ever of any practical value. In any case, it must 
be remembered that Mr. Whymper's knowledge of 
rock-climbing was, at the time, of the most elementary 
character, and that he never ascended any rocks which 
would have given pause to a modern rock-climber, 
climbing without artificial aids. 

Most of these methods of artificial aid are, fortun- 
ately for the sport, fatiguing and futile, when not 
actually dangerous, and are seldom resorted to now- 
adays. 

It is quite legitimate to carry a piton for securing the 
last man on the descent of any extra steep place. 1 It 
may be of use perhaps once in twenty years, on home 
or Alpine climbs. It is usually better and safer, if a 
natural piton cannot be utilised, to provide for security 
by means of a rope-ring, which can be quickly made out 
of a piece of the reserve cord. 

Sensational bits of work have been carried out on 
certain steep Alpine aretes, most notably the upper 
part of the Furgg Ridge of the Matterhorn, by em- 
ploying gangs of men, from above and below, to fix 
pitons, ladders, and ropes. This is steeplejackery, not 
mountaineering. 

The use of an ice-axe has been suggested to form a 
piton for the last man descending over a bergschrund ; 
the axe, of course, in the case supposed is lost. It 
might pay, should such a forced descent appear at 
all probable, to carry a two-foot wooden baton as a 
piton. In a struggle to get down a steep ice-slope 
before dark, if a couple of such pitons could be securely 
fixed in the ice they might save a deal of time, labour, 
and risk. The members of the party could lower 
themselves, or be lowered, as far as the rope would 
allow, down the slope without intermediate steps 
having to be cut. 

1 This is an iron spike, usually with an eye, used for driving into 
a rock-crack to secure a descent. (See illustration, p. 113.) 



COMBINED TACTICS 191 



Combined Tactics 

I have mentioned the case of the friendly helping 
hand from above. The helping hand can also be 
applied below. 

This can be developed into the supporting back. 
shoulders, or even head, and is often styled generally 
"backing up." 

It would be better to confine this term to cases in 
which one uses back and knee, or more usually back 
and foot, in climbing a narrow rock-cleft. 

Here I mean, by combined tactics, all the means by 
which the leader is physically assisted by those below 
to overcome a difficulty. The usual way in which 
this is done is by the leader mounting on the followers' 
shoulders, the second being secured, or not secured, 
by number three. 

The only places where I consider this method justifi- 
able, are those where an ample and safe standing-place 
exists at the bottom of the pitch, such as often occurs 
in narrow gullies. It is otherwise, except for a well- 
tried party of team- climbers, a decidedly risky business. 
The followers may have hoisted the leader into what 
appears to them to be a safe and comfortable position, 
but which is in fact the reverse. 

If the hoist enables the leader to overcome the 
difficulties, it is amply justified. If it merely enables 
him to get over a small bit of the " utterly impossible " r 
in order to commence on the " excessively difficult,'" 
then I think it is not. 

I can personally vouch for the fact that the only 
occasion, during many years' climbing as leader, on 
which I got into a position where advance was impos- 
sible and retreat dangerous, was when I had accepted 
assistance from " combined tactics." 

In some accounts of British climbs which have been 
published this method seems to have been rather 
freely resorted to. It seems probable that, in certain 



192 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

of these ascents, the " backer up " was really the better 
climber, and, had he taken the place of the leader, 
" backing up " would not have been necessary. Now- 
adays, at any rate, a competent leader does not ask 
for help at these places. 

There is little doubt that "backing up" in this 
fashion in unsuitable places, and under bad conditions, 
has been responsible for several unexplained wholesale 
disasters. 

The best- known disaster due to this was the loss of 
Mr. 0. G. Jones, a well-known Lakeland pioneer, along 
with three guides, on the west ridge of the Dent Blanche 
in 1899. Mr. Jones was not the. leader; he was one 
of the backers-up. 

Mr. Hill, the sole survivor, was saved by his guide 
hitching the rope in front of him. 

Mr. Hill describes how the accident occurred, the 
leading guide falling back upon the backers-up. 

Incompetence for such a climb on the part of the 
leading guide, was evidently the true cause of the 
accident. Mr. Hill's remark shows this. He says : 
" He frequently required help from those below during 
the whole climb." Bad guiding was also in evidence. 
Mr. Hill, after the accident, safely evaded the bad 
place and crossed the mountain alone. 

It may be taken as tolerably certain that, if a leader 
on a climb must often be pushed up in this manner, 
involving the whole party in his special risks, he is 
really not justified in his position. The use also of the 
ice-axe on rocks as an artificial aid involves grave risks. 
Dr. Zsigmondy, in The Dangers of the Alps, relates the 
almost miraculous escape of his whole party. The 
followers here pushed the leader up some iced rocks 
with an axe. He very naturally fell off, and the party 
was only saved by the leader's rope catching over a 
projecting rock on the slabs below the pitch. 



ANGLES 193 



Angles 

In looking at a mountain face, the angle always 
appears very much steeper than it really is. In the 
older narratives of Alpine adventure such terms as 
••perpendicular," or even " overhanging," were freely 
applied to places of quite moderate angle. The Mat- 
terhorn is a notable example of how repellent this 
deceptive frontal aspect may render a climbing route. 

In old descriptions of the Matterhorn, as seen from 
Zermatt, it was usually called perpendicular, and in 
certain lights, even to those who know it well, it does 
feally almost appear so. 

It was not until Mr. Whymper got a view of the 
Hornli Ridge from the side that he realised that its 
angle was not excessive. He then made a careful 
observation, and found that the true angle of the route 
now followed is only 30°. This is one of the steepest 
climbs in the Alps. 

Even the climbs on the much smaller but frightfully 
steep-looking Dolomite pinnacles, are a very long way 
off the vertical. 

The ascent of the hand-like splintered prongs of the 
Funffinger, or Cinque Dita, by the " Thumb " is 
certainly not over 45°. 

It is doubtful if any large rock-face exists at an angle 
so high as 80°. If it does, it is certainly quite im- 
possible of ascent. A rock-climb of any height, to 
be possible, must not be over 70°. I do not know of 
any climb, extending to 1,000 feet vertical, which 
exceeds that angle. This is not only because the climb- 
ing would then be impossible, but also that mountain 
faces at such an angle are very rare. The point about 
this is that there are very few rock-faces, of any size, 
in the world, which are not climbable, and usually by 
nianv different routes. 



13 



194 SOME TECHNICALITIES 



Snow and Ice Angles 

As regards snow and ice angles, at what angle will 
snow lie ? and when can we tell by the eye, the clino- 
meter, and the condition, if ascent or descent is safe 
or possible on snow or ice ? 

I was led to go into the question of snow angles in 
collecting information for a paper written for the 
Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal, on " Scottish 
Snow." l The conclusion then come to was that no 
snow-slope existed in Scotland at a higher angle than 
55°, and that angle was not common. 

The question of the actual angles of snow and ioe 
was raised in an article in La Montagne for 1901. 
" L' arete Nord-Ouest de la Grand Casse." The author, 
M. Mettrier, remarks : "II n'est pas excessivement 
rares de voir relatees des inclinaisons de 60° a 65° sur 
des pentes de neige, mais elles ont presque toujours la 
charactere d' estimations hasardees." 

The writer of the article gives rather an illuminative 
example of this himself. He estimates the angle of 
the slope above the bergschrund on the north face 
of the Ecrins at 62°. Mr. Whymper gave an estimate 
for this of " 50° to 54°." The actual average, as 
taken by clinometer by Messrs. Ling, Raeburn, and 
Walker in 1905, was 52°. 

Mr. Whymper states, " I do not think that snow will 
lie in large masses at an angle of over 45°" ; and his 
experience was wide. 

In addition to the experience of others, and of myself, 
on Scottish winter and spring neve, I have taken very 
many measurements of snow and ice slopes on many 
mountains, over a range of latitude extending from 
Norway to the south slope of the Caucasus. 

I have no hesitation in saying that I do not believe 
any extensive slope of unbroken snow or ice exists any- 

1 Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal, vol. viii, September 1905. 



SNOW AND ICE ANGLES 195 

where in Europe (or in Asia or America ?) at a greater 
angle than 55 : . 

It is remarkable how very uniform the angle of 
" very steep " ice or neve comes out. Latitude or 
aspect seems to make little or no difference. Perhaps 
on the south slope of the Caucasus the ice is a degree 
or two steeper than the average, but the Caucasus 
Mountains are steeper than the Alps. 

Ice in narrow gullies, or the snow which produces it, 
where held up by the roughness of the floor or walls, 
may for short distances reach 90 : ; I doubt if any 
summer ice-gully exists with so high a general angle as 
60°. If it does, it is certainly not climbed. 

In thus expressing disbelief in the existence of any 
extensive ice or snow slope at an angle exceeding 55°, 
I do not mean that steeper ice does not exist, or that 
steeper angles have not been climbed. There are many 
hanging glaciers whose terminal ice-cliffs are, or appear 
to be, more than vertical. These are certainly not 
climbed. In making a way through ice-falls, short 
walls of steep serac ice may have to be ascended at an 
angle so high as 70°. An ice-wall at that angle is 
excessively difficult, and involves colossal labour in 
cutting, even with crampons. 

Short pitches in narrow gullies and chimneys have 
been climbed at an angle approaching 90°. 

It may be useful to show some figures of angles, 
taken by the pioneers of the Alps, and also some taken 
by modern climbers who have attacked extra steep 
snow and iee slopes. 

The pioneers used nearly always to carry clinometers, 
and though, as Sir Leslie Stephen wrote, " Some 
astonishing results can be obtained by the judicious 
use of a clinometer, 5 '" still, the figures they give are 
reasonable and to be relied on. Some more modern 
mountaineers, in spite of their neglect of snow-climbs, 
and alleged inferiority on ice, have succeeded in dis- 
covering and ascending slopes of snow and ice, at angles 
from ten to nearly twenty degrees higher than any 



196 



SOME TECHNICALITIES 



conquered by the old ice guides, by judiciously leaving 
the clinometer at home, and trusting to their impres- 
sions. The angles these climbers give are, like the real 
angles, curiously uniform. The usual phrase is "60 
to 70." I do not, however, consider it worth while 
quoting what are, to use M. Mettrier's phrase, "Es- 
timations hasardees." 



Locality. 


Authority. 




Angle. 


Mont Blanc Petites Montees 


Count Tilly. 


est. 


65 


»» 


De Saussure 


clin. 


39 


, , Grandes , , 


Count Tilly. 


est. 


70 


,, Rochers Rouges 


>> 


M 


90 


,, Brenva Route 


A. W. Moore 


clin. 


50 


,, Bosses, steepest 


J. Vallot . 


M 


45 


Jungfrau, steepest part . 


Agassiz 


,, 


45 47 


Dent Blanche 


T. S. Kennedy 


>? 


52 


Weisshorn, south face 


C. E. Mathews 




48 49 


Monch, from Wengern . 


H. B. George 




42 48 


Sesia Joch 


Jy 


nearly 50 


Col. Tournanche 


J. A. Hudson 




54 


Col. des Grandes Jorasses 


A. Milman . 




50 


Col. delle Locie 


J. A. Hudson 




50 


Mischabel Joch (a few feet) 


Coutts Trotter 




58 


Aiguille D'Argentiere 


Adams Reilly 




53 


Morning Pass 


A. W. Moore 




50 


Eiger Joch . 


Leslie Stephen 




51 52 


Rothhorn Glacier . 


Marshall Hall 




50 


Ortler . 


Pegger 




45 


Bee de Lusiney 


A. Reilly . 




50 


Matterhorn Cravatte 


Giordino 




35 40 


Ecrins last slope 


E. Whymper 


est. 


50 54 


,, ,, . 


H. Raeburn 


clin. 


52 


Aiguille Blanche de Peteret 


E. S. Compton 


est. 


55 


Monte Rosa, east face 


G. Finch 


clin. 


45 55 


,, Nord end . 


Reichart 




55 


,, east face . 


H. Raeburn 


Av. clin. 49 


Mount Sir Sandford, Selkirks . 


H. Palmer . 




48 50 


Piz Cengallo (Couloir) 


E. L. Strutt 




52 57 


Gjertvastind, Horunger . 


R. Bicknell 




52 


K2 (Chogori) Karakoram 


J. Guillarmod 


tt 


47 53 


Disgrazia, north face 


H. Raeburn 


,, 


52 



Rejecting Count Tilly's somewhat wild guesses, 
which are only given to illustrate the wide difference 
which can exist between an estimate and the real facts, 
the average of the remainder, taking the highest figure, 
comes out at about 51°. 



SNOW AND ICE ANGLES 197 

In nearly every case these slopes are called " very 
steep," or the steepest slopes ever encountered by the 
author giving the record. I have encountered snow- 
slopes in the Caucasus at an angle of 54°. These 
were only ventured on under cloudy conditions. In 
the afternoon, with sun, such an angle is extremely 
risky ; the snow may go at any moment. Even in 
cold, cloudy weather, the greatest care must be 
taken ; the party should be widely spread, there 
should be no slack on the rope, and one at least 
should always be in a position of security, either on 
rock or ice. 

Of the three examples given from my own notes ; 
I have, of course, very many others, the Ecrins is 
quite short, the east face of Monte Rosa is longer and 
more formidable, the north face of the Disgrazia is 
exceedingly severe, costing a party over eight hours for 
the ascent of between 1,500 and 1,600 feet. 

Now, in looking at a snow or ice mountain in the Alps 
in summer, if we see an unbroken line of white extend- 
ing to the summit or ridge, we can be tolerably sure 
that the angle does not exceed 50°, and is probably, 
if of snow, not over 45°. Above 50° the slope will 
begin to be broken up by rocks which project through 
the thinning covering. At " 60 to 70 " it will be mostly 
bare rock. After bad weather rocks even so steep as 
70° may show white. One day's full sun will turn them 
black again. 

If we are thus very much inclined to over-estimate 
the angle of a snow-slope looked at in face, there is 
another aspect which is deceptive in the opposite 
direction. 

Suppose we are descending steep rocks at the foot 
of which a snow or ice slope extends down to the 
flatter neves of a glacier. We may think it will be 
perfectly easy to jump off the rocks, and run or glissade 
down the easy-looking slopes. If the rocks are really 
steep, say approaching 70°. it is safe to assume that 
the slope is between 45° and 50° at least, which in the 



198 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

afternoon, if of snow, means possible danger of avalan- 
ches ; if of ice, heavy cutting. 



Steep Grass, Falling Stones, and Weather 

It has been written that " Steep grass, falling stones, 
and bad weather " are the three Alpine dangers against 
which it is impossible to provide, and which are "beyond 
human control." This has been thought somewhat 
pessimistic by other authors. I certainly consider the 
whole phrase decidedly unfortunate. 

Steep Grass 

By far the largest number of " Alpine fatalities " 
take place on the steep grass slopes near some Alpine 
Hotel. 

This would seem to lend a good deal of force to the 
statement quoted above, until we begin to examine the 
reasons for these accidents, and their number. 

For their numerical preponderance the reason is the 
same as that in the old catch, " Why do white sheep 
eat more than black ? " They are much more numer- 
ously frequented than other places in the Alps. For 
the other, the reason is that nearly all the people to 
come to grief on these grass slopes are either complete 
novices to mountains, or are in search of some flower, 
often both. 

The great majority also wear very badly nailed 
boots. Many venture on such ground in boots devoid 
of nails. This is indeed horribly dangerous. I have 
seen the summer tourist, in nailless boots, even on the 
hill of Arthur's Seat, at Edinburgh, in dire straits, and 
a safe descent only effected with serious damage to 
- essential holiday garments. The reasonably practised 
hill-walker, who is inclined to laugh at these un- 
fortunates, let him essay steep, slippery grass slopes, 
in boots devoid of nails. He will feel as comfortable 
as he would in ice-steps in a steep Dolomite couloir, 



STEEP GRASS AND FALLING STONES 199 

shod in Metier schuhe, and roped to a guide who is an 
utter duffer on ice. 

With good sharp nails and foot- width hoots, a steep 
grass slope is of course perfectly easy to the fairly well 
balanced mountaineer. Its safe ascent, traverse, or de- 
scent is the ABC, the groundwork of all mouirtaineering 
craft. The way to deal with it, is exactly the same as 
the fundamental rule on snow or rock, " Stand up 
straight," unless the angle is 60° or over, when hand- 
holds must be taken, or made. 

On such a slope an ice-axe is decidedly useful, but for 
the man of really good balance, a stout ironshod stick 
is all that is required. 

The fact is that accidents to mountaineers, very rarely 
happen on steep grass slopes. The great majority of 
" Alpine accidents," reported in the press, are not 
mountaineering accidents at all. 

Falling Stones 

As regards the danger from naturally falling stones ; 
while, of course, a stone may fall and ricochet at unex- 
pected times and places, falling stones in general obey 
the same laws which govern the fall of ice and snow. 
Thus aretes, and ribs on a face, will be safe from falling 
stones unless an exceptional ricochet on the latter. 
Falling stones on a face soon collect into gullies and 
channels. Their usual routes, and the places where 
they are liable to fall, are generally well marked and 
very obvious, and must be avoided. 

If, on the descent of a peak, a couloir has to be crossed 
or descended which is liable to be swept by falling 
stones, it is better to wait an hour or so till the sun is 
off the slopes above. 

It is surprising to witness, how soon after the shadows 
have crept across the snows, the salvos of the mountain 
artillery cease. The long, white, hissing snakes of the 
sliding snows dwindle and die away. What was 
extremely dangerous at three p.m. is perfectly safe at 



200 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

four, when the relaxed fingers of the frost Jotuns again 
stiffen, and grasp the shadowed faces in their icy grip. 

If. from approaching bad weather or other cause, it 
is necessary to cross a stone-swept couloir, it should be 
done as speedily as possible, but only one person should 
be exposed at once, even if this involves rearrange- 
ment of the rope. Quickness and expertness, and small 
number, here reduce the risk enormously. Not only 
is the risk reduced numerically, but even more in the 
duration of exposure to it. The middleman of a cross- 
ing party of three is here in a very poor position. If 
stones fall, he can neither dodge them to one side or 
the other. 

If falling stones are observed coming down a couloir 
on the way up a mountain, then the ascent is, or ought 
to be, given up, or another route devised. 

Every climber of experience knows that the danger 
from naturally falling stones is much greater in sound 
and appearance than in reality. Very few accidents 
indeed ever happen from such a cause. 

In my own experience, I have seen thousands of tons 
of falling rocks, and many a time heard the whirring 
scream of the rock-fragments flying overhead, but have 
never known of a case of accident. A much more real 
and serious danger is that caused by stones dislodged 
by people or animals on rocks or slopes above a party. 

I have known of nasty accidents, and many narrow 
escapes, from this cause. The narrowest escape from 
a falling stone ever experienced personally, was from 
one sent down by a dog from the very steep grass 
slopes above the " Chapeau " near«the " Mauvais Pas " 
of the Mer de Glace. 

If a party on any climb is sending down stones, 
unless deliberately clearing a new climb, then it is 
composed of, or contains, novices or incompetents, and 
should be given a wide berth. It is a sure sign of the 
novice, or of the clumsy, careless climber, to send down 
stones. A really good rock craftsman can climb for 
hours on rotten rocks, and not dislodge a single stone. 



WEATHER 201 

The secret of this is care, deliberation — not slowness — 
and, above all. keeping the pressure of both hands and 
feet as nearly vertical to the slope as possible. 

Weather 

While it is quite true, so far, that weather is still 
" beyond human control " in spite of the fact that rain 
can sometimes be produced by heavy explosions, a 
great deal can still be done by some forethought and 
observation to avoid any probable danger from bad 
weather. 

In these British Islands one is apt to be somewhat 
insular in judging weather and climate. In fact, a not 
unmerited reproach is sometimes hurled against us 
that we have no climate, only mixed samples of weather. 
We are apt to forget that many other countries have 
a climate, and weather which can be depended upon, 
not for days, but for weeks at a stretch. 

Mountains, however, have always more uncertain 
weather than the flat lands in their latitude. 

As a rule, in Europe, the farther away from the sea, 
and the south-west wind, the more steady a climate 
have her various mountain groups. 

The higher ranges will generally catch the bad 
weather first. If a party is held up by bad weather in 
the western, or Pennine Alps, they may find perfect 
conditions prevailing in the Tirol, or the Dolomites. 

The finest weather in the Alps comes with a north or 
north-east wind. The Chamonix guides will speak 
with affection of " Le bon vent du Nord," but it should 
be noted that this wind, if strong, is also very cold on 
the heights, and may make conditions too severe for 
difficult climbing. 

In such weather, with a clear sky, a small cloud may 
be observed clinging to, and streaming out from, the 
leeward side of the summit of a great peak, such as the 
Matterhorn, or Mont Blanc. As the guides then say, 
" Mont Blanc fume sa pipe," 



202 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

This is not cloud in reality, but snow-dust, blown 
from the windward slopes. It means severe cold. 
This may not greatly matter on a mountain like Mont 
Blanc, where any amount of gloves, helmets, and extra 
clothing can be worn, and which there is no reason why 
a man who had lost both hands should not climb. It 
may easily make the ascent of at all difficult rock-peaks 
quite impossible. 

Wind is the greatest difficulty British climbers have 
to contend with. Alike in summer and in winter, it 
is often very strong and cold. I have seen a twelve- 
stone man lifted right off his feet by the spring zephyr 
which so often blows on Scottish peaks. 

British climbers who go to the Alps in summer will 
be agreeably surprised at the, to them, extraordinary 
absence of wind on the great Alpine peaks. I have 
certainly not been in the habit of picking my weather 
in Alpine climbing, but I cannot remember more than 
three or four occasions when the weather high up, 
though described by the natives as " bad," was worse 
than what would be considered as very moderate on 
British hills. 

The Fohn, a damp, warm wind from the south, will, 
like our own south-west wind, very speedily put snow- 
slopes in bad order, and generally put things in motion 
downwards. It acts with much greater effect upon 
the deeper snow layers than even the fiercest sun, as 
it carries warm moisture, with its high latent heat, 
which penetrates the spaces between the snow crystals 
and thus quickly lowers the angle of adhesion. 

Avalanches, even of fairly old snow, may thus be 
expected when the Fohn prevails. Routes involving 
any possible danger of avalanches must be then avoided. 

Mist used to be greatly dreaded by the older type of 
Alpine climber. A few seasons of " British hill 
weather" would have considerably reduced his un- 
familiarity. The British climber almost comes to look 
upon mist as a normal condition, and takes his measures 
and his bearings accordingly. 



WEATHER 203 

Mist has. however, especially when accompanied by 
wind, a confusing, and, to use an expressive Scotticism, 
" deaving " l effect upon the mind of even the ex- 
perienced mountaineer. 

The effect of the sudden onset of mist and wind upon 
the heights may be likened to the feeling when entering 
the streets of a strange city at night from an under- 
ground station. The points of the compass may appear 
to have got twisted round. We settle mentally where 
we are. Our brain assures us we are in the right 
direction. On the compass being appealed to, it 
declares our brain to be quite wrong. Someone is 
evidently a liar. 

It is as well for the novice to firmly make up his mind 
that, in such a difference of opinion, it is the compass 
which is right, his brain wrong. 

Cases are known, notably in Skye and Norway, of 
magnetic rocks, but these, like the ice-axe, only act 
upon the compass if it is held close to them. It is 
possible also that magnetic storms may cause a tem- 
porary aberration, though I do not know of a case ; 
but the rule holds. 2 

I have known of a party of novices accounting for 
their descent into a wrong valley, though carrying 
two compasses, by saying that both compasses, which 
agreed, were wrong. 

Wind on the hills is a bad guide for direction in mist. 
Mountains, as the aviator well knows, twist and deflect 
the wind into innumerable cross currents, eddies, 
uprushes, and over-falls. One will often meet with a 
wind-eddy blowing in exactly the opposite direction to 
the true wind, and with almost, or quite equal, force. 

Cols, in every case, are always the windiest places 
on the ridges, and therefore the worst places for a 
halt. 

1 " Deaving " : does not simply mean deafening : it implies mental 
confusion, such as that induced by an explosion. 

2 See Dr. E. Corner's experience, however, on the Ey Hills, 
Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal, vol. ix, p. 167. 



204 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

In a really strong wind, the top of a very steep 
ridge or peak is often in almost complete calm. 

This is caused by the powerful uprush of the current 
of air striking the very steep slopes below, deflecting 
the wind-stream which would otherwise have scoured 
the summit. I have stood on the edge of an Atlantic 
precipice, quietly reading a map, while a few yards 
away the wind rushed shrieking upwards with a force 
so great that it would have been quite impossible to 
have thrown oneself over. 

If the general shape and structure of the locality is 
known, or well shown on a large-scale map, crags and 
steep ground may often be fairly well located by 
shouting and listening for the echoes, or noting the 
different wind noises. 

Ground contours will also assist in keeping a good 
direction in a mist. 

Of the general weather-signs, a red sky at sunset in 
the Alps, as at home, generally means fine weather 
next day. A pronounced green colour at dawn is said 
to indicate severe cold. Certainly on the occasion in 
my experience when this phenomenon was most marked, 
on the ascent of Elbruz, the cold was so intense as 
almost to cause the defeat of the expedition. 

Long wisps of mist-cloud, dissolving and reforming, 
and gradually mounting higher, on the steep sides of 
deep valleys in the Alps, are usually a sign of good 
weather. 

In sunny weather, the air expanding, the wind blows 
up the valley. Cooled in the depths of space at night, 
the air contracts and falls. In the early morning, 
therefore, the wind blows down. 

When the sun gains power and warms the earth the 
air in contact with it is heated and expands. It rises 
till it meets the cold stream still pouring down when, 
momentarily condensed by contact with this, its 
moisture becomes momentarily visible. These mist- 
clouds are really innumerable layers of vapour-laden 
air passing in and out of visibility. 



LIGHTXDsG 205 



Lights tsg 



Lightning, as an Alpine weather danger, has been 
treated of sometimes as quite negligible. 

If we make up our minds never to climb an Alpine 
peak unless in absolutely fine and settled weather, 
then I think the opinion expressed above is likely to 
be quite correct. 

Unfortunately such weather is the exception and not 
the rule in mountain countries. In some districts, 
notably in Dauphine and the Caucasus, the afternoon 
thunderstorm is of very common occurrence. At the 
date when the opinion was expressed (1892), certainly 
few Alpine disasters could be traced directly to light- 
ning : there have been quite a number since, and 
a comparatively numerous list of minor mishaps. 
Disasters unexplained, involving the loss of whole 
parties, may well have been due to lightning. 

In August 1909 a party of three first-rate Italian 
climbers were lost upon the east face of the Xordend 
of Monte Rosa. Xo trace of them except an ice-axe 
and rucksack was ever found. 

On the day of the accident Mr. W. X. Ling and I had 
accompanied a party of ladies up the Rimpfischhorn, 
Monte Rosa's northern neighbour. We hurried off 
owing to the onset of bad weather. Before we got 
down to Zermatt both the Matterhorn and Monte 
Rosa were centres of terrific lightning displays. 

. Mr. F. F. Tuckett, in a paper in the Alpine Journal 
(vol. vii, p. 191), "A narrow escape from Lightning 
on the Roche Melon," has given an interesting account 
of his party's experience. 

Mr. Cecil Slingsby, author of The Northern Play- 
ground, and a famous Alpine climber, has most vividly 
described his party's trying time on the Dent Blanche, 
when some of them were struck, fortunately without 
very serious result. 

A party of four, two climbers with two guides, were 



206 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

struck and killed on the Wetterhorn in 1902. A 
porter was killed on Mont Blanc. Other fatalities 
have occurred. 

In my own experience I have received shocks on 
three occasions. Once while crossing a fairly low col, 
once while descending the Italian ridge of the Matter- 
horn in snow and mist, the third time on the top of the 
Grand Paradis. The last was strong enough to knock 
me down and momentarily stun me. Fortunately the 
place was only a slope of soft snow ; had it been of rock 
the result might have been serious, as we were descend- 
ing, and I might have fallen on my companion, Mr. 
W. N. Ling, who was below me. Naturally I am at one 
with the guides on the possible danger from lightning 
on the heights. 

The guides think, that while tops and ridges are 
very dangerous, there is little or no risk on even slopes 
or flat glaciers. This is probably correct. 

Every hill-climber who is at all observant knows that 
lightning does very frequently strike the tops of 
British hills. I have seen the cairn on the top of 
Sgurr nan Gillean lying scattered in all directions by 
lightning, and have also seen the fresh scar, where a 
great piece of rock had been knocked off the spike of 
living granite forming the extreme summit of another 
Scottish peak. Lightning is sometimes very erratic. 
I have seen in a Skye^orrie a three-foot-deep hole, 
just like that caused by the explosion of an aircraft 
bomb. This had been made by lightning. 

I therefore think it advisable, when the ice-axes 
begin the strange, weird " chanson du piolet," or 
" buzzing of a large bee," which indicates a strongly 
electric state of the atmosphere, to get off exposed 
ridges and summits as quickly as may be convenient, 
until the " gushes " cease. 

It is certainly worth while to undergo some slight 
risk to view at close range a great electric storm among 
the mountains. I have seen many. None gave such 
an absolutely sublime spectacle, as of a world's last 



CONDITION OF ROCKS AND SNOW 207 

day, as the sunset storm, from about 20,000 to 24,000 
feet, over the great mass of Dykhtau-Koshtantau 
(17,000 feet), in the Caucasus, seen from the ridge 
leading down from Karagom, July 26, 1914. 



Condition of the Rocks and of the Snow 

" The rocks that roughly handle us, 
The peaks that will not go, 
The uniformly scandalous 
Condition of the snow." 

The climber poet who penned the above was perhaps 
a trifle pessimistic, as would beseem his confessed 
weight (sixteen stone). 

It must be acknowledged, however, that conditions 
are too seldom ideal. This is very naturally so, as 
conditions most suitable, safe, and easy for rocks may 
make the snow too scarce, or too soft, the ice slopes 
too smooth, the bergschrunds too wide. 

If there has been a lot of snow, and it has melted 
in situ and not slid off or evaporated, the resultant 
water may refreeze as ice on slabs and in crevices. 

Certain very steep rock-peaks are very easily locked 
against climbers from this cause. Amongst these the 
Meije in Dauphine, the Grepon, and the two Drus near 
Chamonix. 

Verglas is a word of dread applied by Alpine guides 
to this condition. The term is somewhat elastic. A 
thin, transparent coating of ice on steep and difficult 
rocks of course renders their ascent impossible. A 
large amount is uncommon in the Alps in summer. 
A small amount is quite commonly found in the early 
morning, after a fine day ; it may render too early 
arrival at the difficult part inadvisable. I have known 
of a party having to wait over an hour at the foot of 
the Grande Muraille of the Meije till the sun's rays had 
loosened the ice sufficiently to render the ascent 
possible. 

The ice is really melted by the heated rocks, to a 



208 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

very small extent only by the direct sun-rays, otherwise 
ice-glaze in shade and in cracks would never melt. 

On British rocks verglas is common at certain seasons. 
The most complete case of this glazing of the rocks I 
have ever seen, either at home or abroad, was the 
north-east face of Nevis and Cam Dearg in November. 
Here every inch of rock on the whole two-mile stretch 
of cliff, was covered with a thin film of "black" ice; 
not even a boulder was possible of ascent. 

Good condition of the rocks — that is, their freedom 
from ice and snow — is most important with regard to 
the time required to climb them. On icy rocks, which 
are yet possible, the time may be much more than 
trebled. The labour also necessarily expended over 
the clearing of handholds and footholds is much 
greater, more especially for the first man. In such 
conditions the difference between the climbers with 
correct and incorrect style becomes very marked. 
Here is an instance of the enormous difference in time 
caused by bad and icy conditions. In 1910 an 
amateur party in the Alps had to pass a certain col. 
Everything was badly iced up, and the passage cost 
them much hard work, and two hours of time. In 
1911 during the same month, August, the same party 
had again to make the passage. This time there was 
not a particle of ice, and they crossed in ten minutes. 

On British rocks in summer the cragsman is not 
likely to be troubled by the formation of ice, unless 
perhaps very occasionally on the highest north-east 
faces, such as Nevis. Rain, however, which is frequent 
and free, has the effect of softening the mineral and 
vegetable particles so abundantly adherent to British 
rocks, so scarce on Alpine, and producing the condition 
of "greasiness." x The fingers slip on this, the hold 
must be much tighter, leather gloves become slimy and 
useless, the sodden skin is easily cut, and rain, even 
in August, is also very cold. 

The footholds are not so much affected by this 

1 Mica-schist is particularly " greasy " in rain. 



CONDITION OF ROCKS AND SNOW 209 

condition. If the nails are fairly sharp, and the boots 
narrow, these are but slightly worse. The man who 
trusts to his hands is very apt to be let down, both 
figuratively and actually. The sharp nails of the rock 
"walker" bite through the grease, and hold firmly 
on the rock. 

In the Alps in summer, after a spell of bad weather 
which is followed by good, the new snow will begin 
to slide off, like the snow from a roof in thaw. It 
will come off quickest where thinnest on rocks, and 
where thickest on ice. It is recommended to allow 
steep Alpine peaks four or five days to thus purge 
themselves. This is certainly ample. If so long had 
been allowed in the bad Alpine seasons of 1907, 1908, 
1909, and 1910, almost no climbing on the great peaks 
would have been done. A couple of days' full sun 
should be enough, in July and August in the Alps, to 
evaporate or slide off: the new snow from places where 
it might constitute a danger, and to incorporate what 
remains with the old surface. 

It is often not fully realised what a very large pro- 
portion of the new snow in summer is evaporated direct. 
Snow, even on the very top of Monte Rosa, may be 
seen running off as water, but this is only where it is 
in contact with sun-heated rock. It is doubtful if 
the snow on the rounded top of Mont Blanc or Elbruz 
ever melts, it certainly evaporates enormously ; but, 
though the separate crystals must pass through the 
aqueous form before being vaporised, the snow re- 
mains dry all the time. 

It is often difficult, in Alpine narratives, to know 
whether the party was dealing with ice or snow. 
Though it is usually termed ice, it is often evident 
that it was in reality nothing but hard snow. This 
is proved sometimes by the times given as employed 
in the making of the steps. No guides, except in a 
kinematograph film, could possibly have made steps 
in ice at the rates mentioned ; also from the fact that, 
if one goes to these places, under similar conditions of 
14 



210 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

time and weather, one meets with nothing but hard 
snow. 

Snow and ice certainly grade into each other. I 
think a distinction is best drawn by whether it will 
splinter or not. If a hard, tough, bone-like substance 
is met with, which, however, will splinter under blows 
from the axe, then I think this should be called ice. 
If the pick merely sinks in and has almost no effect, 
then it is, however hard, still snow. Perhaps snow-ice, 
or neve, may be used to describe this condition. 

I am here, of course, describing the snow structure 
as it affects the climber. For a reasoned theory of 
the changes undergone by the snow which is born in 
a mist-cloud on a mountain- top, till its final death 
as ice in the glacier tongue, I must refer my readers 
to the volume on the subject by Professor Heim of 
Zurich. 1 Dr. Heim's theory is, however, not without 
difficulty of acceptance in its entirety. For earlier 
theories the works of Forbes, Agassiz, and Tyndall 
may be consulted. 2 

Good snow is snow which is firm and reliable, in 
which rapid and safe progress can be made by kicking 
steps. Snow rather harder than this, in which steps 
must be slashed by the adze of the axe, is also to be 
termed good. On neither of these kinds of snow is 
any danger of avalanching off to be feared. 

A considerable quantity of snow is often an advantage 
on Alpine climbs, not only may it render the passage 
of the glacier and bergschrund easier, it may also 
render the ascent of certain couloirs safe and easy, 
which without it might be difficult, and dangerous 
from falling stones. 

The angles of steep snow have been dealt with else- 
where. In winter the avalanche angles of snow are 
very much lower. Great danger may be incurred on 
the lower slopes of Alpine peaks at that season from 
large avalanches, at quite low angles of inclination. 

1 Die Gletscher Kunde. 

2 Forms of Water. See also List of Books 



CONDITION OF ROCKS AND SNOW 211 

Masses of powdery snow, the Staublauine, may slide 
with slight warning. These are particularly liable to 
be started by the track cut by the ski along an easy 
slope, and places liable to them must be carefully 
avoided. 

This form of snow is rarely dangerous at high angles, 
either in winter or hi summer, as it does not lie in any 
quantity on steep slopes, but runs off as it falls, unless 
bound, as it occasionally is, by an icy crust. 

The British winter mountaineer may encounter a 
stream of this powdery snow on the ascent of a steep 
gully. This is not often heavy enough to be dangerous, 
but it is as well not to incur the risk of being snowed 
under at a narrow place where the stream cannot be 
avoided. If the condition is not encountered till some 
considerable part of the gully has been ascended, it is 
better to go on. Every foot of height gained will, of 
course, reduce the weight and volume of the stream, 
and it is much easier to watch for the " freshets " and 
avoid the current. Hitching should be here as carefully 
carried out as on the most difficult rock-face, and 
fortunately hitching, by means of the axe- shaft, is 
very easy. 

If, on the ascent or descent of an Alpine peak, a 
couloir or slope is encountered on which the snow is 
rather doubtful, it is much likelier to prove safe, if 
the correct, that is the bolt-upright attitude, is always 
adopted. When this is done the compressed snow 
forms a wedge between the foot and the ice, and the 
step will hold firm. If an attitude at all leaning 
forward, or towards the slope, is assumed, then the 
pressure of the feet will tend to take an outward 
direction, and the step is liable to be scraped off the 
ice. A slip, perhaps producing an avalanche, is likely 
to occur. 

If steep snow is really doubtful, the safe method is to 
remove it, and make steps in the underlying ice or neve. 

It has been suggested that the safet}^ of a doubtful 
couloir on the descent may be ascertained by throwing 



212 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

into it a few large stones. I do not consider this at 
all reliable. If the stones produce an avalanche, they 
merely confirm what was practically certain before. 
If they do not, it does not at all prove that the couloir 
is safe to descend without precaution. One of these 
three methods of dealing with the difficulty should be 
adopted : (a) Avoid that route, (b) Wait till frost 
sets in. (c) Cut steps through to the under-surface, 
and always have at least one member anchored to rocks 
at the side. 

As mentioned, powdery snow is only encountered at 
steep angles when bound on by a crust of ice. This 
is difficult to deal with. Its occurrence has been 
referred to in " British Climbing." I have met with it 
in considerable quantities on the Zinal Arete of the 
Dent Blanche, on the Moine Ridge of the Aiguille 
Verte, on the ridge of the Scerscen, leading to Piz 
Bernina, and elsewhere. It rendered these traverses 
extremely difficult, and enormously laborious. 

On the Dent Blanche, indeed, it almost beat the party, 
Mr. W. N. Ling and myself, and drove us out on a 
most disagreable traverse on the iced north face of the 
final peak. It is fortunately not common on such 
sharp aretes as those mentioned, in good seasons. 

Frozen Turf 

When this is hard, and there is little or no snow, it 
is a very difficult condition to deal with. For a short 
distance, the ice-axe is efficient, but the work is very 
slow and laborious. Though common in Britain in 
winter, it is not likely to be met with in the summer 
Alps. Ludwig Purtscheller, the famous Austrian- 
Tirolese mountaineer, recommended crampons for use 
on frozen turf. These do well if the crampon spikes 
are quite sharp. It might, on occasion, pay to carry 
crampons for dealing with this ; but, as a rule, steep 
faces of mixed rock and turf in this condition should 
be avoided. 



ORIENT ATIOX 213 



Orientation 



Perhaps the most valuable part of mountaineering 
art is orientation, or pathfinding. 

This by no means merely implies the simple and 
elementary pathflnding involved in finding one's way 
back by a route followed a few hours before. 

This, though the guide's ability to do it used to fill 
Alpine pioneering amateurs with almost awestruck 
admiration, is the veriest A B C of orientation. Far 
from being an ;i instinct " incapable of acquisition by 
anyone not born an Alpine peasant, this is simply a 
matter of some little practice in observation, and can 
readily be learned by anyone of average intelligence 
who likes to take the trouble. 

The simplest and quickest way to learn the elements 
of the art is, as the guides unconsciously learned it, 
by walking, not climbing, on hilly ground, and avoiding 
all difficulties. 

It is true the expert in orientation is born, not entirely 
made ; that is, no amount of scientific orientation 
with map, compass, etc., will enable the student of 
pathfinding to excel the man who has the faculty ; be 
it the sense of space and distance, the ;; bump of 
locality" added to a thorough knowledge of map, 
compass, and photograph reading. It is. also certainly 
the case, that there are many men, excellent mountain- 
eers in other ways, who always seem to remain in the 
infants' class in this department. 

But if few amateurs can hope to take honours in 
both natural and scientific orientation, there is all the 
more reason why they should seek to thoroughly under- 
stand the side most guides are deficient in. 

There is another form of orientation, in addition to 
the natural and scientific, much practised in climbing 
both at home and abroad, but which I consider hardly 
comes under the definition of mountaineering art. 
This may be called the artificial or conventional 



214 SOME TECHNICALITIES 



Conventional Orientation 

The most elementary form of this is the finger-post. 
We must also include here all artificial marks, or in- 
dications of routes to be followed, such as scratches 
on rocks, footsteps in snow, broken bottles, pieces of 
paper, cairns, and daubs of red paint. 

This red-paint guiding device is almost like an erup- 
tive disease in certain parts of the Eastern Alps. 
Switzerland and France are yet happily largely free 
from it. It is even carried up actual climbs in some 
places. I am convinced that these city-cab-horse- 
blinker methods of orientation are responsible for 
many accidents, and not a few deaths. Young, 
ignorant fellows follow these marks, thinking that of 
course everything must be all right. The way or the 
weather gets too hard for their inexperience ; they fall 
and perish. 

This was recognised as a danger so long ago as 1885 ; 
it afterwards greatly increased ; by perhaps the most 
capable and scientific mountaineer of his age — he died 
at twenty-four — who ever lived, Dr. Emil Zsigmondy. 
In his book, Die GefaJiren der Alpen, he writes : " Auf 
diese Weise ist der Besuch von diese, schone Berge fur 
Leute erleichtert, welche nicht das geringste Stuck von 
Bergkentniss oder Kartenlesen haben, und auch manche 
Unglucke vorgebeugt." l 

It has been recommended that, on rock-climbs where 
difficulty of finding the way back may be feared, 
cairns should be built and pieces of paper placed at 
intervals on the way up. In the Eastern Alps packets 
of papers can even be bought for this purpose. 

A cairn here and there, at places where it seems 
probable error might arise, is perhaps useful and legiti- 
mate. A climb is not a paper-chase, however, and a 

1 " In this manner is access to these beautiful peaks made easier for 
people who have not the slightest knowledge of mountain ' country,' 
or of map-reading, and thus many accidents a.re produced." 



CONVENTIONAL, NATURAL ORIENTATION 215 

leader's eyes would be better employed in observing 
and noting the terrain than in groping in purblind 
fashion from cairn to cairn, or from paper to paper. 

It is certain that this shoddy method of mountain- 
eering is responsible for the deaths of many young 
continental climbers. . 

When a party is reduced to the necessity of following 
this system, it proves, to my thinking, that they are 
undertaking a climb for which they are really unfit. 
It may come off all right, but the leader has not sufficient 
ability, or experience, to justify him in leading the 
party. A cairned route which they are following may 
also lead into a cul de sac or impossible place where the 
original climbers had turned back; but there is nothing 
to indicate this, and the leader of the followers has not 
enough experience to see this. 

The fact is that all these conventional orientation 
methods, such as I have mentioned, and also meticulous 
handhold labelling, literary climbing guides, are not 
mountaineering lore at all. They are merely cribs. 
Used simply as notes, they are often quite useful. 
The student who confines himself to the study of 
cribs, will never make a scholar. The climber who 
relies upon this form of orientation, will never become 
a mountaineer. 

Natural Oeiextatiox 

Natural orientation is very difficult to explain or 
teach. If a man has it in him to learn he will pick 
it up, to some extent, more or less unconsciously. 

The faculty should not be described as pathflnding 
in the sense of being able to follow a known route on 
a map, or from a description or photograph. Path- 
making is a better description of it. It means the 
knowing the best way in hill-country where none of 
these things exist. It also covers every detail of moun- 
tain craft on rocks or ice, from the smallest, rock-climb 
to the greatest ice-fall, 



216 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

In effect it is the faculty of choosing the line of least 
resistance, the easiest route, even on places sometimes 
invisible. 

On a steep little rock-climb the projected judgment 
of this may be very short. On a great new peak it 
may be miles away, but in essence the principle is the 
same. 

This often looks like intuition ; but, though there 
is a certain amount of intuition in knowing how to put 
together and utilise fragments of knowledge, it is yet 
really a kind of projected experience, as it were, of 
similar climbs and conditions, encountered and made, 
it may be, years ago. 

It is thus almost impossible for a young man to be 
a really good guide, unless he is one of the geniuses 
for whom ordinary rules are not made. 

For those who have not got the faculty, or who, 
though possessing it in some measure, have not the 
years or experience, the most reliable methods of 
orientation are the scientific. 

It is always as well to supplement these, when 
possible, by methods drawn from the practical ex- 
perience of oneself or of others. 

Scientific Orientation 

How to read the Map and Compass. — For very accurate 
bearings the prismatic compass is used. 

This is a compass to which a prism is attached, 
through which we can readily read off the bearings on 
the card. In connection with this an instrument 
called a protractor is used. The handiest form of 
this is a semicircular plate of celluloid. In the centre 
of its straight-edge an arrowhead is marked. The 
curved edge is divided into degrees. 

To find True Bearing from a known point, A, to a 
known point, B. — Lay the protractor on the map with 
its longer edge parallel to true north, the inner edge to 
the left, if B is east of A, right, if west. Place the 



SCIENTIFIC ORIENTATION 217 

arrowhead at A. Now read the bearing where the line 
A B passes graded edge, and take the figures below 
180° if B is east, above 180° if B is west, of A. 

To find Magnetic Bearing. — Lay the protractor with 
the arrowhead at A and its inner edge parallel to 
magnetic north line. The true bearing is thus 18°. 

To find an Unknown Visible Point, B,on the Map. — 
Take compass-bearing. Lay the protractor parallel 
to magnetic north, and with the arrowhead at the 
spot where the bearing is taken, A. The line drawn 
from A on the correct bearing given by the protractor 
will pass through B. 

To find with the Compass the Time by the Sun. — The 
sun's true bearing at 6 a.m. is 90°. It moves one degree 
in four minutes. Suppose the sun's compass-bearing 
is 120°, then the true bearing is 120°-18° = 102° ; 90° = 
6 a.m/and the excess of 102° over 90° = 12° ; 1° = 4 
minutes .*. 12 x 4 = 48. The time is therefore 6.48 
a.m. 

In most places and countries magnetic north does 
not coincide with true north. In the foregoing ex- 
amples I have taken the amoant of this variation, 
as it is called, for the centre of Great Britain in 1920 
as 18° west of true north. 

In speaking or writing of directions taken, whether 
in mapped or unmapped districts, it is always better 
and clearer to give the true directions, and for this 
purpose we have to know the variations. Tables of 
this, for most places in the world, are given in the 
Nautical Almanac. These are revised every few years, 
as variation is a fluctuating figure. 

There are various theories by which variation is 
attempted to be explained. None are quite satisfac- 
tory. The subject is a very intricate one, and cannot 
be dealt with here. 

All maps are published with the true direction, 
which does not vary. Most good maps have printed on 
them an engraving of a compass-needle, showing the 



218 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

magnetic variation for the date and locality when and 
where they were published. The actual variation for 
subsequent dates can be readily ascertained by means 
of theTables of Variation given in the Nautical Almanac. 

As an instance of the hopeless confusion into which 
we should fall if we did not always reckon in true 
direction away from the locality in which we happened 
to be, I may take Canada. 

There Halifax is 22° west, Vancouver is 25 east , 
of true, a total divergence of 47°. 

Orientation in General 

Though a prismatic compass is necessary for very 
accurate bearings, it is often heavy. A good, not too 
small, compass, with luminous points and floating card, 
is quite sufficient for ordinary mountaineering : fairly 
accurate bearings can be taken with this, and of course 
the prismatic has no advantage over it for steering 
in mist or darkness. 

There has been brought out recently an excellent 
marching compass, first-rate also for mountaineering, 
the lid of which forms a circular protractor. It is 
also provided with luminous points for night work, is 
legible, and light. It is called the Magnapole. 

The compass is one of the most useful tools of the 
mountaineer and is a very trustworthy guide for general 
direction on the mountains, more especially in mist or 
darkness. The route indicated by it, the direct route, 
is rarely the best, or even a possible route. It is 
essential to work with it in conjunction with the map, 
or previous knowledge of the district by a member of 
the party. The element of time, taken from a last 
definitely located place, must also be taken into con- 
sideration, and this made a rough dead reckoning, 
according to the nature of the ground traversed, and 
its angle. The aneroid is a very great help in orienta- 
tion under these difficult conditions. 

1 See Chapter II, p. 41. 



ORIENTATION IN GENERAL 219 

The use of a pedometer has been suggested, but 
though some hill-walkers seem to have found these of 
use, I think this can only be the case on very smooth 
and easy ground. 

It is much easier to find the way, apart altogether 
from climbing difficulties, on Alpine peaks than it is 
on British hills. An Alpine arete is usually very de- 
finite. A glacier, once constituted as such, is as definite 
as a great river. As in journeying down a river, when 
we come near rough rapids or falls, we make a portage 
on the bank, so on the glacier it is usually best to clear 
off the ice before becoming involved in the seracs. 
We may otherwise, like the first party to descend the 
Saleinaz Glacier in the Swiss part of the Mont Blanc 
range, have an exciting time, and spend a cold night out. 

Though it is easier to find one's way on Alpine peaks 
than it is on homeland hills, the consequences of losing 
it is likely to be more serious on the snows. It is 
better to learn at home how to find the way. 

Water, according to the axiom, always runs downhill. 
It is therefore, like the compass, an infallible guide 
to the right direction, supposing we are on a hill, and 
desire simply to get down. It does not follow, however, 
that it will always do to closely hug a watercourse. 
This may drop into a ravine, or plunge over a cataract. 
Neither of these ways may be convenient. It will, 
as a rule, be better to keep some distance away from 
the stream on either hand. 

The easiest time and place to lose the way is when 
leaving a cairn or summit in mist. A very slight 
divergence here leads to an enormous error in a very 
short distance. 

On arrival at such a point, careful note should be 
taken of the direction from which the party came, and 
this should be at once marked by means of an ice-axe, 
an arrow drawn in the snow, or built with a few stones 
in the absence of snow. 

The larger the party the easier is the losing of the way. 
A solitary hill-walker has to note everything, and this 



220 SOME TECHNICALITIES 

shortly becomes habitual ; he is little likely to go far 
wrong. 

In a large party there are always distractions of 
various kinds. Unless someone is definitely in charge 
there are apt to be discussions, perhaps disputes, which 
consume time, but do not lead to the clearing of either 
mist or mistification. 

One of the most difficult problems in daylight 
orientation presents itself under the following condi- 
tions. These are fairly common on British hills, say 
the Cairngorms, in March and April. A high plateau, 
covered with a uniform coating of crusted snow. 
Mist, and a strong, cold wind, blowing a stream of fine 
ice-dust across the frozen waste. 

The eyes are here at a loss. The angle of ascent or 
descent can only be judged by the amount of labour 
necessary to make progress. The sense of isolation is 
very great, as the visible circle is extremely narrow. 

The visible world, being small and restricted, has its 
visible objects placed, as it were, behind a huge blurred 
telescope lens. The waving stem of a dead weed is a 
tree, or a man ; a sheep, a woolly mammoth ; and a 
boulder, a beetling cliff. 

Constant reference must here be made to the com- 
pass, and it is better for both the first and last men to 
carry and consult one at frequent intervals. It is 
easier for the last man to detect slight variations from 
the correct direction, as he has the rest of the party in 
front of him to check his steering by. 

Winter Mountaineering in the Alps 

Winter climbing in the Alps is now somewhat over- 
shadowed by the enormous popularity of the allied 
sport of ski-ing, but at that season very good climbing 
may frequently be had. As regards the weather, this 
is often far finer and more settled than in July or 
August. 

The disadvantages are the shorter days, and the 



WINTER MOUNTAINEERING 221 

greater cold, as well as, in the case of the rock moun- 
tains, a greater amount of ice and snow on the rocks. 

It is actually the case that the high peaks may be 
warmer in winter than some of the deeper and more 
shadowed valleys. The mountain summit may be 
bathed in ten or twelve hours' continuous sunlight, 
while, owing to the sun's low altitude above the horizon, 
not a ray is able to penetrate into the villages at its foot. 

One of the chief difficulties for the winter climber 
used* to be the access to the huts, and the want of 
guides and hotels at that season ; but this has been 
greatly modified by the development of ski-ing, and 
other winter sports. In some centres, indeed, the 
hotels are fuller and the accessible huts as much fre- 
quented as they are in summer. 

The danger from large avalanches on the lower 
slopes, which, of course, does not exist in summer, 
must be reckoned with and avoided. There is an 
increased possibility of falling into a crevasse, as even 
large ones may be covered and concealed by a mass of 
unconsolidated snow ; but the climbing on the actual 
peak may be almost as easy as in August. 

Skis may be helpful on quite a large part of the 
upward way, and a swift and delightful method of 
descent. In places or under conditions unfavourable 
for the long snow skate, rackets can be employed. 
These are string network frames, on the same principle 
as the snow-shoe of Canada. 

The same costume as that worn in summer is quite 
suitable, but a larger supply of extras, Shetlands, 
etc., gloves and socks, should be taken. 

It is a great advantage to have a good moon at the 
time of the expedition, but naturally the days are not 
nearly so short as they are, for instance, in the north 
of Scotland, in December and January. The chief 
danger to be guarded against in Alpine mountaineering 
in winter, is the sudden drop in temperature imme- 
diately the sun sets. The best month in winter would 
seem to be January. 



CHAPTER XIV 

FOOD, DRINK, HEALTH, AND MEDICAL 

There is fortunately no occasion in mountaineering — 
is there in any sport or exercise ? — to follow any food 
fads, or cranky training rules as regards food and 
drink. Eat what you like and what suits you, and 
the same with drink — of course both in moderation. 
This applies at low levels and off-days at hotels. 
Exigencies of portability and ease of digestion limit, 
to a large extent, what is available on the heights. 
Food difficulties at great heights will be discussed in 
the chapter on ' ' Exj)loration. ' ' This chapter deals with 
provisions for heights up to the highest in Europe, 
Elbruz, 18,500 feet. 

Most home climbers, who will be absent from their 
base for perhaps eight or ten hours, usually content 
themselves with bread, butter, and jam. Probably 
a piece of cake, and a few prunes, raisins, or dates will 
be added. The climber soon finds out that the usual 
hotel meat sandwich is a dry, unappetising, and diffi- 
cult proposition to tackle on a long, hard climb. Potted 
or tinned meat pastes used at one time to be popular. 
These are indigestible, thirst-producing, and often 
somewhat mysterious as regards origin. Their food 
value is low. Cheese, for those who can manage to 
digest it during a climb, is better than meat pastes. In 
the Alps, nowadays, the average climb, hut to hut, 
occupies much the same time as the British climb, 
and the food can be exactly similar. It is a great 
mistake, previous to, or during such strenuous exercise 
as is climbing, to load the stomach with quantities 

222 



FOOD 223 

of rich, indigestible foods. This procedure, combined, 
as a rule, with heavy overdoses of strongly alcoholic 
liquids, was very commonly the case among many of 
the earlier parties attempting the ascent of Mont 
Blanc. The natural result, a violent rebellion of the 
abused stomach, was then called " mountain sickness." 
The great majority of the cases in which this used to 
occur on European Alps, can be put down to want of 
training, over-eating, and alcoholic excess. Modera- 
tion, training, and common sense have practically 
banished it from the normal Alpine climbers' ken. 
Mountain lassitude is, however, real, and not a spiri- 
tuous bogy like the other : it is dealt with under 
" Exploration." 

Matthias Zurbriggen, the famous guide, in his book, 
From the Alps to the Andes, says : " For myself, I never 
eat upon the mountains." This is perhaps going to the 
other extreme, and is too Spartan for most. 

Large tins of soups, with self-cooking arrangements, 
used at one time to be taken by mountaineers. These 
can be carried by those who have ample porterage, 
and who like tinned articles. They are apt to be 
nauseous to some, and their disproportionate weight 
for value will banish them from the menu of the guide- 
less mountaineer. Soups in powder form are now to 
be had. These are portable and nourishing, and, if 
not very palatable hj themselves, can be improved 
by various simple additions, as meat essences, grated 
cheese, a pinch of sugar, or a spoonful of cognac. 
They are labelled with a large variety of names, and, 
if the consumer uses his imagination properly, he may 
believe the variety real, and not merely titular. It 
should be noted that the boiling time given in the direc- 
tions must be doubled at 10,000 feet. 

Bread, as elsewhere, is the mainstay of life upon the 
mountains, and it is surprising what a large quantity 
will be found necessary. For a party of three or four, 
who expect to be away from their hotel for thirty-six 
hours, eight or ten pounds will not be too much. One 



224 FOOD, DRINK, HEALTH, AND MEDICAL 

of the chief difficulties in climbing exploration is the 
impossibility of carrying enough bread. For the 
purpose of enabling enough bread to be eaten, jam is 
the mountaineer's great stand-by. Pleasant and easy 
to get down itself, it aids the consumption of the bread, 
rather dry and uninteresting otherwise. 

Butter is not always to be obtained in the Alps, or in 
the Caucasus for that matter, and in the former goes 
rancid with extraordinary rapidity. I remember a 
very honest old woman, in a Zermatt shop, refusing to 
sell me butter, because, as she pointed out, it already 
smelt very bad. A Russian geologist working in the 
Caucasus, was found to possess butter : it was in tins, 
and came from Petrograd ! 

Bacon seems to be less used by mountaineers than 
it deserves. It is appetizing, easily cooked, and 
furnishes in a palatable form the necessary fat. 

Eggs are the most portable and convenient form of 
meat foods for the heights : if carefully packed in 
separate papers, and fitted tightly into a vessel, say 
a cooker, they will not readily break. If the shells 
are first washed, fuel can be economised by boiling 
them in the soup, or in the water for tea. They can 
also be fried, alone or with bacon. It should be noted 
that, at 12,000 feet, as for instance the Italian Matter- 
horn hut, a three- and- a- half -minute egg takes fully 
five minutes. Hard-boiled eggs are undoubtedly 
the most portable. Some find them very unattractive, 
and they are difficult to digest. A little salt and pepper 
should never be forgotten where eggs are taken, unless 
for those who have acquired the alleged grandmotherly 
art of imbibing them raw. 

To the huts may be taken cooked or half-cooked 
meats from the hotel, beefsteak for instance, or a piece 
of mutton. Chickens, or their legs, can be reheated — 
by the way, Alpine fowls are credited with possessing 
six legs apiece — and, if porterage is ample, tinned fruits 
make a pleasant dessert. Many of the huts are now- 
adays small hotels, where many kinds of tinned articles 



can be bought by those who can eat tinned meats. 
Tinned meat, as a rule, is better kept as an ,; iron 
ration " — and given away at the end of the trip. 

The best light accessories on the heights are sweet 
rusks, called in Xorse " Kavringer," in German 
" Zwieback/' Sweet biscuits are also good. These 
share with the rusks the disadvantage of fragility. 
Various sweets are also useful, and some like chocolate. 
Others find that thirst-producing and drying to the 
mouth. Dried fruits are most excellent, and of these 
prunes are probably the best. It will be found that 
something of a sugary nature is easiest got down, and 
also throws the least strain upon the digestion. Sugar 
is. however, like its derivative alcohol, only for short- 
period effort. We cannot continue to do strenuous 
work on sugar alone. Therefore it is important that 
our Alpine holiday off-days should be ample, and that 
we should have plenty of nitrogenous, nourishing food 
on these days, otherwise we may lose too heavily in 
weight. 



Dbive 

By far the best drink for mountaineers is mountain 
water. Few, except those who have known what it- 
is to be really thirsty, in the thin, sun-smitten air of the 
heights, where the bodily evaporation is far greater 
than at sea-level, know how delicious water can be. 
All water above house-level is sine to be pure and good. 
Below villages, or inhabited chalets, it is best to be 
careful in the choice of a drmkmg-place. Water 
running on a glacier is usually first-rate. So is melted 
snow-water. Water from the glacier streams is best 
allowed a few minutes for settling. This water, or 
generally ,: glacier water," has been blamed for several 
Alpine ills : such as the results of eating putrid meat 
or fish at the hotels. It is safer to avoid -sea-fish 
altogether at Alpine resorts in summer. 

For a time some medical theorists used to ascribe 
15 



226 FOOD, DRINK, HEALTH, AND MEDICAL 

goitre, prevalent in certain Alpine valleys, to this 
water. Other and later theorists declare it has nothing 
to do with it. In any case, the amount taken on an 
Alpine holiday will not do any harm. At one time a 
deal of discomfort and unnecessary suffering used to 
be endured by climbers, who were told that on no 
account should water be taken when they were heated, 
and that the less water drunk during a climb the better. 
My advice certainly is, drink just as often as you like. 
Cold water taken during active exercise never does 
any harm. Of course, if while heated one were to 
imbibe a quart of ice water, and then sit down in a 
cold breeze for half an hour or so, a chill would probably 
result, due all the same more to the wind than to the 
water. One great advantage of depending upon water 
in the Alps, and elsewhere, is that it is almost every- 
where available, and therefore does not require to be 
carried on great heights — that is, of course, if the sun 
is shining. I have made tea with water which was 
running from melting snow on the very summits of the 
Schreckhorn, the Rimpfischhorn, and of Monte Rosa 
(15,217 feet). 

I have not the slightest doubt but that water will be 
found to be running on or near rocks on the Himalayas, 
at 25,000 feet or higher. Even if water is not always 
available, there is always snow. I have eaten many 
pounds of snow, on peaks old and new, and never 
suffered in the smallest degree from any of the dire ills 
which are said to result from this. Of course, only a 
very small quantity of snow must be taken at a time, 
especially if the temperature is below freezing. Several 
of the scientific pioneers are strong on the benefit of 
eating snow. Thus Professor Forbes, in his account of 
the ascent of the Jungfrau in 1843, says : " None of 
us suffered from thirst, though we were without water 
for more than twelve hours. We ate snow, however, 
pretty freely." The physiologist, Professor Mosso, 
in 1886, when ascending Monte Rosa, discovered, 
somewhat to his surprise apparently that snow was 



DRINK 227 

pleasant, thirst- quenching, and did him no harm 
whatever. 

In thus singing the praises of water, I am not in 
the least influenced by any teetotal fads. Temper- 
ance is a well-known virtue. Total abstinence from 
alcoholic liquids, which may or may not be a virtue, 
has no right whatever to fraudulently claim the title 
of a virtue to which it has no relation. 

Every form of stimulant indulged in by every tribe 
and race of mankind is probably, on the whole, of some 
benefit : regard being paid to time, place, or climate, 
and moderation. 

It seems curious, however, that some people who, 
for instance, prefer a dilute solution of the virulent 
narcotic poison, theine, should assume an absurd atti- 
tude of virtue towards others who may prefer a small 
quantity of the much less poisonous alcohol in their 
beverages. 

The effect of stimulants in climbing was most care- 
fully investigated and reported on by a committee of the 
Italian Touring Club, under the direction of Professor 
Galeotti, in 1914, the subjects being young Italians 
and Americans. 

Stimulants may be taken as the following most 
usual : tea, coffee, cocoa, coca, kola, mate, alcohol, 
oxygen, meat essences. 

( 1) No stimulants are necessary for Alpine climbing. 
Plain digestible food, sparingly partaken of, and water, 
are sufficient. 

\2) The effects, say, of alcohol upon the system 
vary so greatly in different individuals, and even 
in the case of the same person, at different times, 
that it is impossible to lay down any law with regard 
to this. 

(3) Small doses of cognac have a beneficial effect on 
some. 

(4) Alcoholic stimulants (and all stimulants) in 
large quantities are always harmful. 

(5) The effect of alcohol at high elevations is ex- 



228 FOOD, DRINK, HEALTH, AND MEDICAL 

ceedingly transient ; the after-depression is greater 
than at low. 

There is no doubt that in former days far too much 
wine and brandy was habitually carried. Brandy, as 
will be seen, is not necessary for an Alpine climb. 
A small quantity, however, should always be carried 
by one member of a climbing party. It may prove 
of great value when a short effort is required, say to 
reach a place of safety. Also after a long, cold wait, or 
night out, to enable a start to be made. Without it 
it may be very difficult to get going. Before, or during 
the halt, it should not be taken — that way lies frost-bite. 
Natural wines, and beer do not contain enough spirit 
to make either worth while carrying as a stimulant. 
Their weight, and that of the bottles containing them, 
renders them impossible for the guideless climber. 
Some people nowadays take thermos flasks containing 
hot drinks, such as tea, coffee, or soup, and, if there is 
ample porterage, there is no reason why these, or wine, 
should not be carried. The intolerable weight for 
value of all liquids whatever will soon banish them from 
the back of the high-climbing, guideless mountaineer. 
The most convenient stimulant for the heights is tea. 
This, of course, necessitates the carrying of an alu- 
minium cooker, and of a flask of methylated spirit ; 
but the first can be got in very light form, and can also 
be used for soups or eggs, and for the frying of bacon 
or of beans. 

Condensed milk can be got in small tins, and, whether 
with sugar, or without, is good food value for weight. 
Milk can now be had in the form of a dry powder. 
The flavour is rather against it, and. like that of the 
condensed, is disliked by some, but one soon gets used 
to it. If condensed milk, and also jams, could be got 
in collapsible tubes, such as toilet preparations are 
put up in ; this would be the most convenient way in 
which to carry these. Jams can be got in London in 
small J-lb. tins. These are very handy ; as the tops are 
so thin that they may be cut with an ordinary penknife. 



HEALTH AND MEDICAL 229 

Health and Medical 

A high medical authority on the subject of health 
writes : " Of all the means in the hands of the physician 
for restoring tone to the jaded system, for purifying 
the blood, and for cheering the mind, an Alpine holiday 
is the best." x 

With all due respect and acknowledgement of the 
services to mankind of medical men in general, I 
would prefer to claim for mountaineering, sensibly 
conducted, that there is no sport or pursuit we can 
follow which is so likely to keep us out of the hands of 
the physician. To have the best medical advice in 
need is a good thing. Not to have the need of it is 
very much better. There is nothing more calculated 
to promote, and to keep us in, the fittest possible 
bodily and mental condition than exercise in the keen, 
pure air of the mountains. 

There are some people who surfer from what used 
to be called the " vapours." These are by no means 
always of the female sex. They imagine themselves 
to surfer from all kinds of physical and mental dis- 
abilities. The beneficent fairies of the heights wil] 
be found to be most potent conquerors and banishers 
of such low spirits. Some, however — and this particu- 
larly applies to the young and physically powerful — are 
apt to under-estimate the strain of climbing at great 
heights. It undoubtedly throws a heavy labour on 
the heart. Those who suffer from serious organic 
heart deficiencies should not go in for climbing. A 
slight heart weakness or irregularity is no bar. . This 
may be purely nervous, and reasonable exercise of any 
weak organ will strengthen, not' in jure it. 

The best and most easily obtained training for the 
mountaineer is walking, preferably cross country 
and hill walking. Unfortunately this has the draw- 
back of requiring more time than can generally be 
afforded. 

1 Sir Thomas Clifiord Allbutt. 



230 FOOD, DRINK, HEALTH, AND MEDICAL 

A medical mountaineer, Dr. R. P. Cockburn, pub- 
lished an article in the Alpine Journal (vol. xxv, 1912), 
on the subject of " Indoor Training for Mountaineers." 
Some of his suggestions are ingenious and useful. 
One of the great faults of all these systems of training, 
however, is their having to be done indoors ; but the 
real defect is their mechanical and uniform character. 
Once the trick of a system is learned, it becomes mere 
labour and ceases to interest the mind. Indeed, the 
over- development of certain groups of muscles, such 
as was produced by a quack system of training very 
popular for a time, creates worse evils than those it 
was supposed to cure. 

Dr. Cockburn warns against this foolish fad. He 
states very truly it renders the muscles " slow in action, 
prone to stiffness, and tend to undergo fatty degenera- 
tion." 

The great benefit and beauty of mountaineering 
from a muscular development point of view is that, 
unlike so many sports and pastimes, its variety is 
infinite, and every muscle is exercised on both sides of 
the body equally. Sculling is a good mountaineering 
training, right-handed weight-lifting perhaps the worst. 

No attempt will be made in this volume to give 
general medical or surgical advice. Everything in 
the least likely to be wanted, or useful to the amateur, 
can be found in any of the small text-books on " First 
Aid." 

An able literary man can write a volume on a Tour 
Bound My Garden. x A learned surgeon could write a 
library on what might happen on a climbing expedition 
— or, for that matter, on crossing a London street. 

A small volume was published in 1907 2 which deals 
very fully with possible mountaineering accidents. It 
even discusses the best way to deal with the epileptic, 
or suicidal or homicidal maniac, on a difficult climb. 
It quaintly suggests that " It would be dangerous to 

1 Alphonse Karr. 

* The Climber's Pocket-book, by L. T. West. 



BLISTERS AND SNOW-BLINDNESS 231 

attempt to quieten the patient (or impatient ?) by 
blows on the head," and advises gentler, kinder 
methods, such as throttling. One might suggest that 
if the patient's conduct became habitual, it would be 
really kinder to him, and certainly much kinder to his 
friends, to knock him quietly on the head, and deposit 
him in the nearest convenient crevasse. Seriously, 
of course, anyone who suffers from epilepsy, or sudden 
attacks of acute mania, and attaches himself to a roped 
party, is a dangerous criminal, and ought to be treated 
as such. 

Blisters 

These are much commoner than mania or melan- 
cholia. The way to avoid getting them has been 
dealt with under "Boots and Stockings." Wear 
double foot-coverings. If this has not been done, and 
the skin gets rubbed and dirt enters, a very painful sore 
may be produced, leading perhaps to the total loss of 
the climbing holiday. As soon as possible after the 
rub has taken place the foot should be most carefully 
washed with some dilute disinfectant. The best pro- 
tection is liquid collodion, or " Newskin." 

With a clean strip of linen bound round to take the 
rub, and as much rest as possible, healing should, 
normally, take place in a few days. 

Snow-blindness 

Prevention is very easy ; always wear goggles when 
on a snow-field, and remember carefully that, as with 
sunburn, mist does not stop the chemical rays which do 
the mischief. 

If from any cause the precaution has not been taken, 
snow-blindness, either slight or severe, may come on. 
It is an exceedingly painful affection, and the sufferer 
may have to be confined^toa darkened room for several 
days. It does not appear to result in permanent loss 
of sight. A few drops of a dilute solution of cocaine 



232 FOOD, DRINK, HEALTH, AND MEDICAL 

may be used to ease the pain when severe. Rest and 
darkness is the cure. 

Sunburn 
Prevention is again very easy. Give a good well- 
spread coating of " Pomade Sechehaye " before entering 
upon an Alpine snow-field. If the unprotected skin 
of the average person is exposed for quite a short time 
to direct sunlight at high levels, not merely on glaciers 
or snow, it will suffer very serious damage. It should 
also be very carefully noted that the skin of the fore- 
arms, feet, and legs is even more easily affected than 
is the skin of the face. In bad cases great blisters form 
full of liquid. These break, and the greater part of 
the outer skin may be lost. The pain and irritation 
may be quite sufficient to prevent sleep for a night or 
two. Healing is long and tedious, and the new skin 
at first extremely tender. There is no cure but time. 
Some emollient like zinc ointment, is said to ease the 
pain and discomfort. It is much wiser to always 
plaster than to risk ' ' glacier face. ' ' Ordinary exposure, 
and the tanning of the skin resulting, gives some 
measure of protection. Fair people suffer more readily 
than those with dark, sallow, or muddy complexions. 

Frost-bite 

There are three degreesof frost-bite known to surgeons. 
Perhaps we might add a fourth, from the experience in 
the trenches during the Great War. This was cold-bite, 
due to standing for many hours in cold water. In 
extreme cases the results of this were as serious as the 
third degree of frost-bite, the death of the tissues and 
the necessity of amputation in order to save the victim".- 
life. 

The first degree of frost-bite is fairly common, and is 
not serious. The symptoms are a loss of sensation in 
the part affected, and a tallowy feel and colour. Dry- 
ing, gentle rubbing, and protection from further cold 



FROST-BITE 233 

will cure it in a short time. The part then becomes 
exceedingly painful from the returning blood. Xo 
permanent results are felt. 

The second degree is worse, and the ultimate effect 
is not unlike that caused by sunburn. Blisters form, 
and the outer skin eventually peels off. The nails may 
also be lost, and sores may form owing to the death of 
the under- skin. 

In the third degree, the frost has penetrated so 
deeply as to kill the cells of the parts affected, even to 
the bones. These parts become gangrened and even- 
tually drop off, or have to be amputated to prevent 
blood poisoning. 

This degree of frost-bite is rare in Alpine climbing. 
In cases where it has occurred it has usually happened 
to a badly clothed, fed, and shod second guide or 
porter, who has spent a night high up in bad weather, 
has neglected the warning of loss of sensation, and has 
also had, perhaps, too free resort to the brandy-flask. 
With a well-fed, well- clad party of mountaineers on 
the ordinary Alpine climbs in good summer condition. 
even the first degree of frost-bite will very seldom occur. 

Frost-bite comes on much more readily if the part 
has been wet. This emphasises the great importance 
of having a change of dry wool gloves on a snow-climb. 
Wind is perhaps the most important factor in producing 
frost-bite ; therefore the first care of a storm-stayed 
party, or one faced with a night out, must be to get 
out of the wind at all costs. Cols are always the windi- 
est places on mountains. 

A very useful article, " On the Health and Training 
of Mountaineers/' was published in the Alpine Journal 
as long ago as 1876. This was by Sir T. C. Allbutt. 
It is full of the soundest practical advice, and deserves 
to be read by all climbers. As regards diet, he writes : 
" A time of stress is not the time to annoy the stomach 
with strange foods. . . . On climbing days the food 
should be small in bulk and easy of digestion. . . . Cold 
tea is not very nice, to my thinking, and. when fine 



234 FOOD, DRINK, HEALTH, AND MEDICAL 

mountain water is to be had, what more does a man 
want ? . . . Men who are small eaters, and have but 
weak digestive powers, are often the better of a little 
weak alcohol with their food. . . . After hard work, 
let the evening meal be simple." 






1. CORNICES ON NUAAIKUAM 



All Uarold Jiaebum 
2. eergschrund OF SABAMAG. 
Looking for a bridge. 

3. ICE-TUNNEL IN NUAMKUAM GLACIER. 

4. LOWEST ICE-FALL OF THE TSAYA GLACIER. 

With hu?e Seracs in distance. 



[235 



CHAPTER XV 

EXPLORATION 

Exploration, in the geographical sense, is no longer 
possible in the Alps. New climbs, and variations of 
old, are yet to be discovered in abundance by those 
enterprising enough to seek them. 

Exploration, in its widest meaning, may also be 
considered as ended, or fast coming to an end, in nearly 
all the great mountain-ranges of the world outside the 
Himalayan or Central Asian area. There are, however, 
very many world-peaks. Everest, or Chomo-kangkar 
(29,002 feet), is the most outstanding, which, though 
observed and triangulated many years ago, have hitherto 
never been conquered, or even approached or surveyed. 

The exploration of mountains is such a vast and 
important development of mountaineering art, that it 
would require a whole volume to deal with this part of 
the subject properly. All that will be attempted here 
is to give some hints, and a sketch of the methods, 
equipment, and procedure best calculated to lead to 
success in attacking the great unclimbed mountains 
of the world. 

, Every rock-climber on hills below snow-level, who 
first makes a way up a face hitherto ignored, or defiant 
of conquest, is in a sense an explorer. He has in him 
the germ, latent perhaps, and never to be developed, 
of the conqueror of the greatest peaks of the globe. 
It is, nevertheless, the fact, that the key to the conquest 
of the great peaks is the knowledge of snow and ice. 
Many modern rock-climbers, and even some of Alpine 
experience, have wondered at the extraordinary rock- 
climbing deficiencies of many of the old pioneering 
235 



236 EXPLORATION 

guides. These guides would often persistently stick 
to a snow route when others, not only easier, but safer, 
existed by the rocks. The reason of this was, that when 
the conquest of the Alps was seriously begun, the peaks 
aimed at were, naturally, the highest in their respective 
groups. These highest peaks are almost invariably 
snow-peaks. The Matterhorn is one of the few ex- 
ceptions to this rule. Even the great rock-peaks of 
Ushba, in the Caucasus, and the Dent Blanche, in 
Switzerland, are, under certain conditions, possible of 
ascent almost entirely on snow. A snow-route is 
nearly always quicker and easier, though not necessarily 
safer, than a rock-route. The snow-craftsman, there- 
fore, would have by far the better chance of success ; the 
rock-climber, however expert, would be apt to be at 
sea on the snows. 

Rock-craft, and that of a high order, may, however, 
be required in places on these great peaks. The real 
master of mountaineering arts is the man who has 
passed in both departments. Such a man is the only 
ideal mountain explorer. 

A good working knowledge of geology is an essential 
part of the equipment of the exploring mountaineer. 
He will thus be able to tell, from a telephotograph, or 
a view through a glass at many miles' distance, the 
probable nature of the climbing on the peak he is aiming 
at. He should be able to infer, with a very considerable 
degree of probability, the manner in which the invisible 
side of the mountain is built up. For this instinct or 
intuition he must not only be a theoretical geologist, 
but have had wide practice in actual climbing on many 
different kinds of rock and snow mountains. Know- 
ledge of relative distances and proportions can only 
be acquired by this wide experience. Alpine guides are 
peculiarly weak on this point. 

Emil Rey of Courmayeur, a very fine mountaineer, 
was invited by Mr. C. D. Cunningham to Scotland 
in 1884. They ascended Nevis in February. Of 
this peak Rey remarked, " Mais monsieur, e'est une 



EXPLORATION 237 

veritable montagne la." While in Edinburgh, looking 
up one afternoon at Arthur's Seat. ,; that perfect 
little mountain in miniature/' Cunningham asked Emil 
how long they should take to make the ascent. Emil 
replied " About two and a half hours." They gained 
the top in twenty-five minutes. Again. Mr. C. T. Dent 
brought Melchior Anderegg, " a Swiss guide of almost 
matchless experience and of great intelligence." to 
Wales. Standing on the commencement of the Crib 
Goch ridge of Snowdon, one bright winter's day, Dent 
asked Melchior how long it would take to reach the 
summit. Melchior thought it would " take some three 
hours." Dent estimated they would get up in one, 
which proved almost exactly correct. 

These are examples of over-estimates. Alpine guides 
taken to the greater ranges, such as the Caucasus, or 
Himalayas, have often made as wide errors, but this 
time in a much more dangerous direction. Zurfluh, 
Mr. Mummery's guide in the Caucasus, was anxious to 
make the ascent of Dykh-Tau (17,054 feet) as "a 
training walk." Again, Alexander Burgener, the 
famous Swiss guide, with another guide, Ruppen, 
accompanied M. Maurice De Dechy to the Adai group 
in the Caucasus in 1884. He very clearly under- 
estimated the difficulty and distance of the peak he 
was asked to attack, the supposed Adai Khokk 1 15,244 
feet). This was really another mountain about 1,000 
feet lower. In the result, though successful, two nights 
had to be spent at high bivouacs, and the party were 
very nearly lost. It seems very probable that the 
young and inexperienced climber, Mr. W. Graham, was 
deoeived by similar failures to understand the relative 
proportions of the Alps and Himalayas by his guides 
Boss and Kaufrnian. His narrative, in my opinion, 
cannot be reconciled with the actual ascent of the main 
peak of Kabru. 1 

1 Imboden was probably the original befogger. Graham and he 
visited the region in March. It seems certain they mistook Kabru 
for Kangchenjunga. 



238 EXPLORATION 

Photography, especially telephotography, has placed 
an enormously powerful weapon in the hands of the 
exploring mountaineer. It is often not sufficiently 
appreciated, what a large part the photographs brought 
back by the pioneers have played in the eventual 
conquest of peaks. In the Caucasus, De Dechy, 
Dent, Donkin, Ronchetti, Sella, Woolley, Young, 
are some of these photographers. In the Hima- 
layas, Sella again, Collie, 'Conway, Kellas, Longstaff, 
Mumm, De Philippi, and many others. In the 
Rockies, Dr. Collie again, and a whole host of 
Canadian and American photographing pioneers. 

If the country is imperfectly or badly mapped, by 
the photographs we can fill the map's deficiencies, or 
correct its errors. If the photographs are numerous 
they can serve, at a pinch, should the country be as yet 
entirely unmapped. 

Photographs, even long-distance ones, are thus of 
great importance as a means to the conquest of new 
peaks. They may save a long journey, weeks of time, 
and perhaps bitter disappointment, by showing that 
a certain side or aspect of our peak is probably too 
difficult or too dangerous to attack. 

Reconnoitring 

This is taken as meaning, observing the mountain 
from a distance, by the eye, or through a glass. It is 
a method which has been highly recommended, but has 
its traps for the inexperienced. It is always useful to 
obtain a general knowledge of the shape and structure 
of our mountain or group. This is best done by ascend- 
ing at least two commanding heights, of easy access, 
in its immediate neighbourhood. Reconnoitring, on 
off-days, from low levels, is, especially with the glass, apt 
to be useless, or worse, deceptive. 

I have used all kinds of glasses, monocular and 
binocular, for many years, in bird- watching. For this 
they are essential. I used also to try them for climbing 



RECONNOITRING 239 

study, but have come to the conclusion that, for giving 
any reliable information as to the possibility or other- 
wise of a route up a peak, the glass, whether monocular 
or binocular, is not worth its weight. The telescope is 
especially deceptive. It may be taken as an axiom in 
mountain craft, that the greater the rock-face, or 
mountain, the greater the certainty that a way up it 
exists. I certainly agree with the saying of the famous 
mountaineering guide, Matthias Zurbriggen, " Every 
mountain has a good way." This good way cannot be 
discovered by means of a glass. The route must be 
judged from the general comprehensive survey obtained 
by the eye, collated with former experiences gained in 
climbing on similar geological formations. A smooth 
rock-wall only twenty feet high, will effectually stop 
any party of climbers. The telescope, or binoculars, 
will, from a distance, merge and confound planes of 
relative space and size. If near enough for detail to 
be visible, the information conveyed to the brain will 
be in small detached sections, practically impossible to 
fit together. 

If glasses are employed at all, by far the best is the 
prismatic binocular. This should be calibrated, or 
fitted with a measuring standard, inscribed on a glass 
disc inserted in the right barrel (see illustration, p. 39). 
If one of the factors of size or distance is known, we 
can then calculate the other with fair accuracy. 

Even if the mountain explorer is not a deeply 
scientific man, or is lacking in wide practical experience, 
he should yet be easily able to do better than the average 
guide, in a new country, until the latter learns the ropes. 
If he has maps, and these are merely imperfect and 
elliptic, and not utterly erroneous ; if he knows the 
average summer snow-level ; if he uses an aneroid, 
prismatic compass, and clinometer ; then he can get 
good data to go upon in judging possibilities, and 
probable time required. 

No attempt will be made, in this sketch, to go into 
the subject of surveying new mountain countries. 



240 EXPLORATION 

This is really a different subject, and is not necessarily 
mountaineering at all. 

It is, however, highly desirable that scientific govern- 
ment surveyors should be instructed in, and possess at 
least an elementary knowledge of, mountaineering. 
Lack of this led to some enormous errors in the earlier 
Caucasian maps, and lack of it also led to some 
rather strange statements in many of the earlier 
reports of Indian mountain surveys. 

It is certainly desirable that a mountaineering party 
in new country should have attached to it a member 
who is able either to triangulate, or at least to take rough 
surveys by means of a plane-table, or. better, photometric 
camera ; but the mountain leader of such an expedition 
has no time for what, after all, is mechanical detail work. 
Good weather is none too common on the mountains. 
The surveyor is best left to do his work at the lower 
levels when this is the case. He is not one of the climb- 
ing party proper. A light camera must take his place 
on the heights. 

Special Equipment 

This must be devised with special regard to warmth 
and lightness. The usual Arctic, I do not consider at 
all suitable for ultra-high mountaineering. Tempera- 
tures even approaching those prevailing for months on 
end in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, will very rarely 
be met with, even on the highest of the Himalayas. 
Low temperatures, in fact, will only usually be encoun- 
tered at night. Great heat will be one of the most 
trying conditions in the day-time. 

The enormous range of the temperature is the con- 
dition most to be guarded against. I consider that 
ordinary walking clothes, or the usual Alpine outfit, 
will be perfectly suitable. The clothing may be made 
even somewhat lighter than generally worn b} T Alpine 
climbers, but should be of close, smooth-texture cloth. 
More extra garments will be needed. Nothing is better 



TEMPERATURES ON GREAT MOUNTAINS 241 

than Shetland wool for these. A suit of very thin, but 
wind-resisting overalls, should also be taken for use 
over the Shetlands at night, or before dawn. Just before 
dawn is always the most trying time on the heights. 

Some Factors modifying Temperatures on 
Great Mountains 

Some theorists, in arguing the con side as regards 
climbs to great altitudes, have laid great emphasis 
upon the extremely low temperatures likely to be met 
with. They refer to the tables which have been con- 
structed giving the fall of temperatures as one ascends 
above sea-level. According to this, the height between 
28,000 and 30,000 feet should give a reduction of 
temperature of about 80° F. 1 These calculations and 
tables are, however, of little more than academic 
interest to mountaineers. 

Even at 29,000 feet a climber is not off the surface 
of the earth at all. The direction and force of the wind 
currents, and the time of day, have much greater 
influence upon the temperature than the elevation. 
Every climber to great heights knows that the sun- 
heat there is very much greater than on the plains 
below. Here are a few actual temperatures which 
will illustrate this. 



Loca'-ity. 


Altitude. 


Date. 


Temp. 


Observer. 


Shigar 


7,516 


June 1899 


206 


Workmans 


Chogo Lungma 


17,322 


Juiy 


204'5 


,, 


Calcot Lungma 


14,067 


August ,, 


196 




Calcutta 




max for year 


162 




Lahore 




max. for year 


172 




Suru . 


10,850 


August 1906 


219 


,, 


Nun Kun Glaciers 


15,100 


j? >> 


183 


?> 


Bride Peak XV . 


21,673 


July, 1909 


123-8 


Due D'Abruzzi 


Bride Peak XV . 


22,483 


July 17, 1909 


152*6 


,, 



I have no doubt that, were one on the top of Everest 
in calm, sunny weather, and were to place a lump of 
snow on a piece of black) paper, it would melt and 



1 DeschaneL Physics, vol. ii. 



16 



242 EXPLORATION 

disappear in a very few minutes. The air temperature 
at night, however, would probably be even lower than 
what theory demands. 

Great mountains act as directors of air-currents. 
During the day. in fine weather, a constant stream of 
heated air is rushing up them. This is what accounts 
for the presence of feeble-flying insects above the sum- 
mits of even the highest peaks yet reached by man. 

Even scientific observers such as Professor Mosso 
sometimes miss the significance of this. Professor 
Mosso relates how he watched a flock of choughs 
(Pyrrocorax Alpinus) coming up from the valley below 
to the E.egina hut, to eat the scraps. He was surprised, 
he says, on observing them closely through the glass, 
that the birds exhibited no signs of fatigue, or of being 
out of breath, although they must have climbed 10,000 
feet in a few minutes. In reality, of course, the choughs 
floated up without any exertion to speak of at all, 
much less than if flying 5,000 feet along the level in a 
calm. All they had to do was to hold their wings at 
the proper angle ; the wind did the rest. 

This up-rush of air is as regular as clockwork, in fine 
weather, all along the Italian foot of the Alps, and is 
the meaning of the almost constant presence of mist- 
clouds over the high Italian valleys at an early hour in 
the forenoon. The same thing also occurs in the Cau- 
casus, and probably also in the Himalayas. After 
sunset the position is reversed. The heated air, cooled 
in the depths of space, contracts and falls. A down- 
rush of cold air pours down the mountains. The cold 
increases till the tide again turns, after the first rays of 
the sun appear above the horizon. 

Another factor which makes an enormous difference 
in temperatures on high mountains is this. If a moun- 
tain is steep enough — say the angle of large portions is 
between 60 and 70 degrees — to possess large exposures of 
rocks, it will be much warmer, for many hours after 
sunset, than a purely snow peak. The amount of solar 
heat absorbed by rocks at high elevations is very great. 



EQUIPMENT 243 

Radiation, in clear weather, is also rapid, but it is 
a fact that rocks at 10,000 feet in the Alps and 12,000 
feet in the Caucasus, can be, after the sun has been for 
some time set, at a temperature of 60°, while the air 
a foot or so away from them is under freezing. I have 
seen, at 15,217 feet, the top of Monte Rosa, within a 
space of three feet, streams of water running from 
melting snow, on a partially exposed rock, while a wet 
glove laid on snow in the shade was frozen stiff as a 
board in a few minutes. 

Equipment 

As in all climbing, the boots are the most important 
part of the equipment. It would seem that the ordinary 
nailed boot used in the Alps, too readily conducts the 
cold of the ice to the feet, or too readily allows the 
natural warmth of the feet to escape. 

Ordinary crampons and puttees are too restrictive 
to the height- enfeebled circulation to permit either to 
be used. As difficult rock-climbing is not likely to be 
undertaken, the following arrangement might prove 
suitable. The boots would be soled, exactly the width 
of the feet, with two thicknesses of good leather, 
having between them a layer of thin, three-ply wood ; 
or a sheet of rubber. Xo nails would be permanently 
fixed, but a number of socketed small steel plates would 
be screwed to the outer sole. 

Into these sockets could be screwed, or removed at 
will by means of a box key, either the usual four-pointed 
ice-screws, or crampons spikes of tough, mild steel. A 
dozen of these arranged round the edges of the sole and 
heel, and a dozen ice-screws in the centre, would prob- 
ably be sufficient ; perhaps even fewer might do. The 
uppers would be carried up the leg to just below the 
calf, and would be, high up at any rate, of very thin, 
carefully prepared flexible leather, such as is used for 
the best Russian boots. 

The under-garments, two thin suits, would be in 



244 EXPLORATION 

combination form. No garters, or knicker straps, 
would be worn. The stockings would be hung by 
suspenders. The knickers would have a band of easy 
elastic round the foot, and would be voluminous enough 
to allow of being drawn down in deep snow, low enough 
to cover the tops of the boots, to which they would be 
secured. The glove supply should be most ample : at 
least two pairs of wool, and two of leather, ought to be 
carried, and, of course, two Shetland helmets, to keep 
the head warm at night. 

No liquids whatever would be carried, except 
methylated spirit or paraffin, and a small flask of cognac. 
Success in the highest climbs is, in my opinion, likeliest 
to go to the party lightest loaded, and to those best 
prepared, naturally or by training, to tighten their 
belts, and yet do as much, or more work, than when on 
full rations. The fight will be already lost if weeks of 
starvation, on tinned foods, had first to be spent at 
low levels. 

Assistance and Porterage 

The matter of porterage is vitally important in high 
climbing. Many narratives are full of the manifold 
troubles due to the weaknesses of the native porters 
employed. For this reason some have advocated the 
employment of large numbers of European guides and 
porters. This, however, besides the very heavy expense 
involved, is not without its own special drawbacks. 

The two climbing expeditions in the Himalayas most 
completely successful in their aims, were those of 
Messrs. Rubenson and Monraad Aas, and of Dr. Kellas, 
both in Sikkim. In both of these the mountaineers 
relied upon native aid. 

These climbers, it will be noted, made their ascents 
in Sikkim, where they were fortunately able to obtain, 
select, and train, men of a hardy, powerful, and adapt- 
able race of mountain people, who are free from the 
clogs, worries, and prejudices of caste. 



THE AEROPLANE 245 

Those unwilling to undergo the extra labour and 
trouble of training native lieutenants and assistants, 
must have recourse to the trained skill and mountain 
knowledge of one or two European guides. The best 
of these, for distant and high work, would seem to be 
the Piedmontese Italians : men born on the southern 
slopes of the great central Alpine peaks, Mont Blanc, 
the Matterhorn or Cervin, and Monte Rosa. Xearly 
all the highest climbing records all over the world are 
now held by these guides. This may be, no doubt, 
largely due to the patriotic labours and enterprise of the 
Due D'Abruzzi, who has invariably employed Italian 
guides in all his great climbs. 

The Aeroplane 

It would appear that in the aeroplane we have the 
best and most convenient means for a general topo- 
graphic survey, by photograph, of mountain and desert 
countries. As yet, however, at very great heights the 
risks from the great irregularities of wind direction, 
owing to the cross-currents set up by mountain ridges, 
are very considerable. Difficulties of landing in un- 
known mountain country are also very serious. In 
addition, though it is true that records have been set 
up (three over 30,000 feet in 1919), considerably over 
the highest point of earth's surface, yet these records 
are by no means scientifically accurate. Aneroid 
barometers, near the extremity of their range, are 
notoriously unreliable, and at great heights may easily 
be out by several thousand feet. In any case, it would 
require every favourable condition, and a heavily 
stripped aeroplane, even to reach from a well-situated 
aerodrome, such heights as the highest of the Himalayan 
peaks. 

To pass safely over the Alps requires a plane with 
a clear " ceiling " of nearly 20,000 feet. The Gauri- 
sankar range would require one of at least 34,000 feet 
ceiling, with petrol stores, and a convenient safe 



246 EXPLORATION 

landing -ground within 80 or 100 miles of the ridge. 
This is not yet. 

Some have considered that the would-be conquerors 
of the great Himalayan peaks, might fly up to the top 
or these, and then land on them. 

Landing on a great snow mountain, in aeroplanes 
furnished with skis, or skids, as were the original 
machines of the Wright brothers, Farman, etc., is, I 
have been convinced for many years, perfectly possible. 
On Mont Blanc, for instance, this should not be seriously 
difficult. On Elbruz, the eastern peak at any rate, it 
would not be feasible. At present, landing would have 
to take place about 2,000 feet below the top. 

On the greatest Himalayas, so far as is yet known, 
the highest tops appear to be formed of sharp ice and 
rock-ridges ; on these, landing would be extremely 
risky, if possible at all. The ascent of such peaks by 
means of the aeroplane requires one of a type, such as 
expanding, or movable wings, not yet proved prac- 
ticable. There is, however, one very obvious way in 
which the areoplane could be of enormous service to 
the exploring mountaineer. That is, as a means by 
which the porterage difficulty could almost be done 
away with, to get over the intermediate hot, unhealthy 
valleys, and to shorten vastly the time, and to lessen 
the labour involved in getting to the base of operations. 

It could transport the provisions, stores, and climbers 
to the base camp. It could take them back from there. 
It could bring up fresh provisions, mails, and news 
from the plains. It might even be employed to drop 
provisions, stores, and tents, on high, but accessible 
plateaus which might be discovered, and thus enor- 
mously shorten the time required, and lighten vastly 
the climbers' loads and tasks. 

Camps and Bivouacs 

In the Alps nowadays, as we saw in the Alpine 
Section, camping, and voluntary bivouacs have been 



CAMPS AND BIVOUACS 2iT 

practically given up. They are still necessary in most 
of the other great ranges. 

Low camps vary with the conditions, and their style 
and amount of comfort and luxury are largely a 
question of porterage and expense. I do not propose 
to deal with these at all, and would refer the inquirer 
to the hand-books on the subject. 1 

Except in the Himalayas, some of the central Asian 
ranges, and of course on Arctic and Antarctic heights, 
high camps on snow will not often be required. As a 
rule high camps are best pitched on the highest grass 
to be found. It will rarely be worth while to carry tents 
past this to pitch them on rocks. Though it has been 
stated, by a poet, however, that ''' rocks by custom turn 
to beds of down," I have not found this to be the case. 
Possibly I did not persevere long enough. It is aston- 
ishing how difficult it is to find in the mountains a 
level space large enough to hold even a small tent. If 
the ground is not level, or nearly so, it will pay to build 
it up with stones covered with turf, or to dig into the 
slope above, or both. If this is not done, great dis- 
comfort will be caused to the occupants during the 
night, by the slipperiness of the ground-sheet causing 
them to slide together, or outside. Care should be 
taken to select a site free from any danger of falling 
stones, ice-avalanches, or water. If there is any risk 
whatever from these sources then the shelter of a 
boulder or overhanging rock should be sought for. 

The Mummery tent is a very convenient form for 
high altitudes. This works without poles or pegs ; 
ice-axes form the poles, and the holding -down cords are 
fastened to heavy stones. If this form of tent is taken, 
it should be noted that the modern axe-shaft is tco 
short to support the tent properly. The following 
arrangement answers perfectly. Two pieces of bamboo 
ten or twelve inches in length, of a diameter to fit over 
the spike of the axe and jam on the shaft, are carried. 

1 G-alton's Art of Travel ; The Camper's Handbook, by W. H. 
Holding. 



248 EXPLORATION 

Of course the axes are not stuck in the ground, but sit 
on their heads with the spike in the air. In the upper 
edges of the pieces of bamboo slits are cut, through 
which the supporting cords of the tent are passed, and 
secured to heavy stones. The longer the cords, the 
firmer the tent. No knot is really required, but in 
strong wind it is better to put on side-guys ; these 
are best secured by clove-hitches. The " Improved 
Mummery," of waxed material, is very warm, as it is 
really a closed bag, with sewn-in ground- sheet, but 
there is no ventilation except at the door, and it is apt 
to be stuffy. I have used a very light tent of " A " 
pattern at heights up to 10,000 feet — moraine debris — 
in the Caucasus, and found it very convenient and com- 
fortable. It has a separate rubber ground-sheet, pegs 
of aluminium, and bamboo fishing-rod poles, and the 
total inclusive weight is only six and a half pounds. 
It has double doors, and does not lack for ventilation. 
It stands well if carefully pegged, and the pegs secured 
by placing stones across the strings. This tent has 
successfully stood a blizzard of snow at 2,000 feet in 
Scotland, in February, with no less than three men 
inside. The dimensions are only 6 ft. 3 in. x 4 ft. 6 in. 
It should be noted that no light tent ought to be loaded 
so that the occupants touch the walls. If this happens 
the rain at once comes through, as the tent is used 
without a fly. 

In choosing a site for either a tent or a bivouac on 
the heights, the first essentials are shelter from wind 
and proximity to water. Even a comparatively low 
wall of loose stones will keep off a great deal of wind. 
Before setting up the bag form of tent, or before laying 
the ground-sheet of the open kind, it will pay to go 
carefully over the ground and remove any prominent 
stones if possible. If not, then to fill up with as small 
stones or gravel as can be found. An astonishing 
increase in comfort will be obtained by finding out the 
exact spot where the hip-bone will come, hollowing out 
the stones, and lining the hollow with soft earth, grass, 



CAMPS AND BIVOUACS 249 

or any spareable extras. If two men are to occupy 
one of these small tents this method is doubly good 
value, as it will tend to confine the restless comrade to 
his proper territory, and render the invasion and awak- 
ening of the peaceable less likely. 

By far the most convenient and efficient and portable 
stove for the high camp is the " Primus" : the roarer 
form is best. 

A wood fire is cheery and companionable, and, if 
ample porterage is available, can be made with wood 
brought up from the last dead trees. If juniper or 
rhododendrons are in the neighbourhood, these can be 
used, as they burn when green. A wood fire cannot be 
used inside the tent ; a paraffin or alcohol stove can be. 
Care must, of course, be taken to see that the former is 
clean and working properly, else it may flare up and 
set fire to the tent. It is better that the tent used as 
a kitchen should have a loose ground-sheet. This can 
be folded back, and a place made for the stove on the 
ground. Spirit-stoves are light, convenient, and toler- 
ably effective, but extravagant of fuel perhaps not 
easily replaced. 

Before retiring for the night, water for the morning 
meal should be collected, placed inside the tent and 
covered up ; but in a position where it will not be 
likely to be upset. At the usual height of a high camp 
or bivouac, the water supply will probably be dried up 
by frost during the night. 

If ample porterage is available, a couple of thermos 
flasks carried up to the high camp would save fuel and 
time in the morning. 

Foeced Bivouacs 

These will generally be made under bad conditions 
of the party, of the mountain, or perhaps of both. The 
first essential, when a forced bivouac appears probable. 
is to seek a site which affords the greatest amount of 
shelter from wind and from snow, or rain. It is better 



250 EXPLORATION 

not to delay fixing upon this too long. An endeavour 
should be made to leave enough daylight to arrange the 
site as comfortably as can be managed. The first care 
on settling down, especially with an exhausted, ill, or 
injured member, should be, to get on dry extras next 
the skin. Shetlands are far the best for this purpose. 
Dry gloves should also be put on and, if possible, socks 
also. The food should then be taken stock of, and 
served out, retaining a reserve for the morning. If 
the party carries an aluminium cooker, tea will be 
made from water or snow. This helps to pass the 
time wonderfully, even if only a small quantity can 
be made. Spirits, except for a small quantity perhaps 
in the tea, are much better reserved till just before the 
time of startimg in the morning. After the food comes 
the question of sleep. Some people, especially guides, 
can sleep under any circumstances. It is not likely 
that an amateur party, forced to spend the night out 
above snow-level, will be able to sleep much. They 
should sit, or lie, if the position allows it, closely huddled 
together, with the weakest in the centre. 

Puttees, if worn, should be loosened ; crampons taken 
off, or their straps slackened. 

Telling stories or singing songs has been recommended 
for the purpose of passing the time. Certainly the 
latter is good, especially songs possessing an easy chorus. 
No one will be inclined to criticise the singer, even if he 
has a voice which might be thought raucous in a draw- 
ing-room. 

Though a night out on the snow -peaks rarely does 
anyone any harm, if reasonable precautions such as 
suggested are taken, still, especially if the weather is 
bad and rocks iced next morning, a considerable amount 
of unnecessary risk may be run, and anxiety to friends 
may be caused. Perhaps the benighted may enjoy 
the notoriety, and expense, of being rescued by a relief 
party of guides. It is really no credit to get benighted, 
though useful as an experience once. Those who make 
a practice of it, are proving that they habitually attack 



MOUNTAIN LASSITUDE 251 

climbs for which their mountain technique and ex- 
perience are insufficient. That is, they are oromaniacal 
gamblers. 

Mountain Lassitude 

Mountain sickness was undoubtedly due to errors 
of training, or want of training, and of diet. It is not 
likely to trouble the average healthy mountaineer up 
to the height of Mont Blanc at any rate. Mountain 
lassitude is a different thing, and must most seriously 
be taken into account by those who would attack the 
highest summits of the globe. 

Some of those who have dealt theoretically with the 
possibilities of high mountain ascents, have been most 
pessimistic with regard to the probability that man, by 
his own powers, will ever be able to set foot upon the 
highest points of earth's surface. For my own part, 
though I have carefully studied and taken into account 
all the cons as well as the pros of the subject, as pre- 
sented in theory and practice, I never at any time have 
felt the smallest doubt of the ultimate conquest of 
Everest. 

Mountain lassitude is an extremely complex question. 
It is often very difficult to disassociate its symptoms 
and effects from those caused by fatigue, pure and 
simple. 

The most extensive scientific study of the subject 
was that carried out by Professor Angelo Mosso in 
1886, at the Regina Margherita hut, near the summit 
of the Gnifeti peak of Monte Rosa, at the height of 
4,560 metres, nearly 15,000 feet. 

Professor Mosso was the author of another study, 1 
that on fatigue, some years earlier. Besides his brother, 
Professor L"go Mosso, and several other scientific 
assistants, he had ten soldiers of Italian Alpine regi- 
ments to study. The experiments went to prove that, 
when acclimatised, which usually took place in a few 

1 La Fatica. 



252 EXPLORATION 

days, little or no discomfort was experienced, and that 
in many cases, more and harder work could be done at 
4,560 metres than in the Italian plains. The main 
trouble was a shortness of breath. l 

Unfortunately for our purpose, the top of Monte 
Rosa is not high enough to permit us to gauge the possi- 
bilities at nearly double that height. 

Mountain lassitude, or sickness as they call it, has 
been compared by some to the trouble experienced by 
aeronauts in high ascents. This, however, has little 
practical bearing on the subject ; the conditions are 
utterly different. 

Of even less value are experiments under the receiver 
of the air-pump. By taking certain precautions, and 
inhaling oxygen, a diminished pressure of atmosphere 
corresponding to nearly three times the height of Everest 
has been successfully endured by men. 

In free air, aeronauts have reached, in balloons, about 
34,000 feet, in aeroplanes about 30,000 feet. In all 
these cases the period of time at these low pressures 
was very short, and oxygen was inhaled. I do not 
consider, for reasons which will be given later, that 
oxygen inhalation will be of any use to mountaineers, 
who have to walk up to 29,000 feet on their own feet. 

The task of raising the human body, by its own 
engine power, into such a tenuous atmosphere as exists 
at great heights, is an extremely hard one ; it is compli- 
cated by many difficulties besides those due to want of 
oxygen. 

The chief danger, in aeronautical ascents to great 
heights, results from the sudden diminution of atmo- 
spheric pressure. This disturbs the equilibrium of the 

1 In 1894 Professor Kronecker published a volume, Bergkrankheit , 
embodying experiments carried out by order of the Swiss Govern- 
ment before the Jungfrau Railway was authorised. The experi- 
ments were made on people from 10 to 70 years of age. Most were 
unaffected by Bergkrankheit. Dr. Swan, in a paper read to the 
Aeronautical Society in 1919, gave an account of many observations 
made on people who went up by this railway. Most were un- 
affected. ("Some Physical and Psychical Effects of Altitude," 
Aeronautical Journal, January, 1920.) 



MOUNTAIN LASSITUDE 253 

body and blood gases : asphyxiation, and stoppage of 
the blood circulation are induced. 

The so-called " caisson disease/' which caused the 
death of many workmen employed in under-water 
bridge and breakwater building, was the result of the 
too sudden reduction of atmospheric pressure on the 
men coming out of the compressed-air caissons in 
which they worked. 

The mountaineer has no problems of this kind to 
solve : his pressure reduction does not take place in a 
few minutes, but extends over many hours, days, or 
even weeks. 

Oxygen is used by aeronauts, and also by experi- 
menters under air-pumps. Its use has often been 
proposed by planners of high ascents. I cannot make 
out that it has ever been employed seriously. 1 In 
any case up to now, in whatever form oxygen has 
been tried, no benefit whatever has resulted. 

At 18,100 feet above sea-level the amount of oxygen 
in the air has already cUminished to one half ; there is. 
however, still plenty of it. Any troubles at that height 
are not due to want of oxygen. As the small boy 
said when his mother reproached him for eating too 
much pudding, "It's not too much pudding, mother; 
it's too little boy." 

There is plenty of oxygen still left, even at 30,000 
feet. Of course its diminution is at a geometrically 
decreasing rate, logically, even at 1,000,000 miles from 
the earth, it should still exist. 

Our trouble at great heights is, that the heart is not 
big enough, or has not yet learned to beat fast enough, 
to secure the necessary amount from the air. 

We may divide mountain lassitude effects into 
really two phases, according as we press the assault 
too quickly or delay too long over it. 

The first is a more or less temporary one, partaking 
of the nature of asphyxia, due to fatigue of the heart, 
and is brought on by the diminution of oxygen, and the 

1 See A. L. ilumm, Five Months in the Himalayas. 



254 EXPLORATION 

heart's failure to increase its beats to compensate for 
this. Breathing is normally an involuntary action. 
Breathing at great heights, until the heart becomes 
acclimatised and learns the new rhythm, is not ; it 
requires a more or less conscious exercise of the will. 
This is what explains the difficulty, often the impossi- 
bility, of sleeping at great heights : the higher powers 
of the brain have to be in charge, otherwise the heart 
stops work. When the heart learns the new rhythm, 
if it is capable of learning it, then sleep will be possible 
and normal. 

As regards high ascents, they may for the present 
purpose be divided into three stages. 

The first contains all ascents up to about the height 
of Mont Blanc, say 16,000 feet. As far as this the 
normal, healthy person, should find little or no trouble. 1 

The second may be taken at from 16,000 to 20,000 
or 21,000 feet. Most mountaineers will find an in- 
creasing difficulty in climbing, and a stronger necessity 
of acclimatisation. 

At the third stage, 21,000 feet and upwards, climbing 
will become so difficult that only the very fit, very 
determined, very lightly loaded and careful moun- 
taineer will be able to make progress at all. 

We may now consider the opinions and the practical 
experience of those concerned in the highest ascents 
hitherto made. 

Very many travellers, and very many mountaineers, 
have described their feelings and sensations of mountain 
sickness, and many ways of combatting it have been 
proposed. One scientific ( "'.) authority ascribed it to 
anaemia of the brain, and proposed to cure it by stand- 
ing on the head. I have heard of a guide doing this, 
warbling loudly the while, on the very summit of the 
Jungfrau ; but his employer did not consider that the 
guide was engaged in any scientific study. An abstainer 
himself, he declared the man ** simply drunk." Per- 

1 Gold-mining is carried on at Thok Jalung, in Til 
Sulphur is mined from the crater of Iztaccihuatl (17,000? Mexico. 



MOUNTAIN LASSITUDE 255 

haps " somewhat elevated " would have been more 
literally correct. 

The six highest ascents hitherto made are all in the 
region of the Himalayas and Karakoram Mountains. 
The lowest of these six is higher than any mountain 
summit on the other continents. The problem of 
further high climbing is therefore a purely Asiatic 
one. The following are these six expeditions. 

The Due D'Abruzzi and his three Italian guides, 
though they did not succeed in reaching the summit 
of his mountain, Bride Peak, in the Karakorams, yet 
hold, by fully 600 feet, the record height gained by 
mountaineers — 24,600 feet — in July 1909. 

The other five all lie between 23,183 and 24,000 feet. 
They were made by Messrs. Rubenson and Monraad 
Aas, Dr. Longstaff and his two Italian guides, Dr. 
W. H. Workman, Signor Mario Piacenza, and Dr. 
Kellas, with a number of native porters. 

I must exclude Mr. W. W. Graham's plucky effort, 
the supposed ascent of Kabru in 1883, as I am con- 
vinced that the peak he almost attained was not Kabru 
(24,000 feet), but a lower peak of about 22,000 feet on 
the south-east ridge. Such at least is the conviction 
forced upon me by a careful study of his writings, of the 
latest maps and photographs, and of all the evidence 
given in the somewhat extensive controversial literature 
which sprang up around the subject of the expedition. 
Nevertheless, Graham's climb, with Boss andKaufmann, 
remains as one of the greatest tours de force ever made 
in the history of mountain-climbing. He, however, 
gives us no information with regard to mountain 
lassitude, as he did not experience it. Leaving out 
Graham, all these highest parties were affected by 
mountain lassitude in more or less acute form : as 
were, indeed, expeditions which did not get within 
3,000 feet of the Due D'Abruzzi's record, such as Sir 
W. M. Conway's, Dr. Jacot Guillarmod's, and others. 

There appears to be no general agreement with 
regard to the way in which this lassitude and weakness 



256 EXPLORATION 

should be combatted. Some have advocated " rush- 
ing " the peaks. This seems to be Dr. Longstaff's 
opinion. Others, like Dr. Kellas, who has had great 
experience of high ascents, have advocated gradual 
acclimatisation. The experience of the Eckenstein- 
Guillarmod Karakoram expedition of 1902, and also 
to a great extent that of the Due D'Abruzzi and De 
Philippi in 1909, in the same region, would seem to 
rather confirm the opinion of Dr. Longstafr". These 
parties found that, by a prolonged stay at great heights, 
other symptoms began to appear, which in the end 
became more effective in preventing success than the 
disabilities first experienced. These were connected 
with the digestion of food. 

Dr. Guillarmod put down his party's loss of appetite, 
of weight, and of strength, to the tinned foods on which 
they largely subsisted. No doubt he is partly right. 
De Philippi, though his party suffered in much the 
same way, does not blame the tinned meats. Both 
explorers describe the loathing all felt for the contents 
of the various cases. 

The symptoms experienced by these parties point 
to a slow poisoning, owing to the non-elimination from 
the blood of the waste products of life. This is the 
secondary and more serious cause of mountain lassitude. 
The question of suitable food is therefore of very great 
importance. 

A few years ago one of those silly crazes of the 
perpetual-motion type was very prominent in our 
ephemeral literature. This was the " doping " of 
athletes and horses with oxygen. By this means 
wonderful results were going to be obtained, equiva- 
lent to extracting a quart of liquid out of a pint pot. 

Oxygen is certainly a strong stimulant, but for that 
very reason is wholly unsuitable for a prolonged effort, 
such as mountaineering. Here we must not expend 
our reserves quickly. We must, on the contrary, 
conserve them as carefully as possible. The only way 
in which, it seems, oxygen might be of value, is, if it 



MOUNTAIN LASSITUDE 257 

were possible to devise an apparatus of very light 
weight, which would atomise it, and deliver it to the 
lungs sufficiently diluted to restore the air's composition 
to nearly normal. The weight of such an apparatus 
would almost certainly be a far greater drawback than 
any benefit it might confer. 

Alcohol is a combination of oxygen with carbon and 
hydrogen in certain proportions. It is, whatever may 
be the classification put upon it by some theorists, in 
practical effect a powerful stimulant. It is also, accord- 
ing to the latest investigations, to some extent, a food. 
It has, however, like oxygen, when pure, a toxic effect 
in any quantity but doses so small as to be of no value 
as food per se. It is thus wholly unsuitable for work 
at great heights. There are, nevertheless, many strong 
testimonials to the benefit derived from small quantities 
of cognac after work, with soup or tea, in the evening. 
Examples of this will be found in the accounts of the 
expeditions of Mr. Belmore Brown and Professor 
Parker on Denali (Mt. McKinley) 20,300 feet, Rubenson 
and Monraad Aas on Kabru, nearly 24,000 feet, Drs. 
Jacot Guillarmod and Wessely, nearly 22,000 feet on 
K2, Sir W. M. Conway nearly the same height in the 
same district, the Karakorams, Dr. W. H. Workman, 
and many others. The benefit is probably in the 
assistance to the digestion. We cannot, however, 
expect alcohol to take the place of solid foods for pro- 
longed efforts like mountaineering. 

Sugar is, chemically speaking, alcohol + carbonic acid 
gas. It is, however, a true food, though not a body 
builder by itself. In my opinion it will prove, along 
with fats, and a certain amount of starch food, the 
most suitable for use during high ascents. 

Sugar is, of all foods, the quickest and easiest 
digested, with the smallest possible quantity of waste 
products. 

As we know nothing — and this is acknowledged by 
all really scientific investigators, like Professor Mosso — 
of hoiv the vital processes are carried on, we must be 
17 



258 EXPLORATION 

guided largely by the practical effects of this process, 
such as digestion and production of energy. 

As regards modern tinned meats, my own view is 
that these by themselves are in reality slow poisons ; 
that the sterilising process to which they have to be 
subjected destroys something, be it a vitamine or not, 
which is essential to their proper assimilation. They 
are, to a large extent, stomach-cheaters, of the nature 
of the synthetic foods (?), of which we have heard so 
much lately. 

Digestion and elimination of waste products are 
weakened on the heights. It is perfectly easy to per- 
pare a list of foods containing the requisite number of 
" calories." It is not so easy to persuade the stomach 
that foods which it dislikes are good for it. 

Machine-made dietetic rules will not work in high 
climbing. As Dr. Clifford Allbutt wrote in 1876 : " A 
time of stress is not the time to annoy the stomach 
with strange foods." 

In many cases the true way with rival theories lies 
in medias res. Probably the best way of combatting 
mountain lassitude, and of reaching the greatest 
altitudes, is by steering a way between the Scylla of 
overstrain of the heart by rushing the great peaks and 
the Charybdis of gradual poisoning by remaining long 
at high altitudes. 

The best procedure seems probably this. A stay 
for acclimatisation at the highest elevation found not 
to produce discomfort ; this will probably be about 
15,000 to 16,000 feet, and training there, but not 
too severely ; living as well and as comfortably as 
possible. 

Then a rush at the last 12-13,000 feet in the course of 
five or six days, eating no meat, and not a great deal 
of other food, depending chiefly on sugar, dried prunes, 
or other fruits, dried milk, butter or margarine, and 
neglecting any loss of weight the while. 

Victory would most probably go to the party best 
able to pull in their belts farthest, and yet work as 



MOUNTAIN LASSITUDE 259 

much as those forced to consume, and carry, heavy 
loads of food. 

These high climbers should also be regarded as a 
storming-party. The mountaineering general who was 
bent upon the conquest of the highest peaks of the 
globe, would do well to reserve it as much as possible 
from the marching and carrying, the sapping and 
mining, necessary in preparing the attack. 

The symptoms of mountain lassitude are difficult 
to describe. Most find that it has greatest effect upon 
the legs. These appear to weigh enormously. Lifting 
them and the body becomes gradually impossible. 

The old symptoms of mountain sickness, such as 
bleeding at the nose and ears, vomiting, and severe 
headache, are now seldom met with in the real mountain 
lassitude. An apathy of the mind, a creeping paralysis 
of the limbs, seems the fairest description ; no pain, 
but an utter weariness. 

In severe cases only a few steps can be climbed 
without a pause ; this is spent in gasping for breath, 
and waiting till the heart slows down a little. On 
sitting down the symptoms usually subside, and, on 
turning down-hill, generally completely disappear. 

No after-effects of any kind seem to be felt. A 
return to a denser atmosphere is a cure complete and 
absolute. 

My own experience in the matter has been very 
slight. On only one occasion, the ascent of Elbruz 
(about 18,400 feet), did I feel symptoms at all marked. 
Here, as is usually the case, it is difficult to separate 
the effects entirely from those of fatigue. 

The party of three, Messrs. W. N. Ling, Rembert 
Martinson, and myself, made the ascent from the base, 
6,000 feet, to the top, up and down, in 27 hours, without 
porters, tents, sleeping-bags, or sleep. The last 1,500 
feet was felt very hard going by all. My own sensations 
were peculiarly like those felt in a vivid and annoying 
dream, when the lead-loaded limbs refuse to obey the 
brain's commands. One point of interest and encour- 



260 EXPLORATION 

agement may be noted. Contrary to what has been 
surmised, I found that the small amount of rock- 
climbing we met with, at about 17,500 to 18,000 feet, 
was easier than the monotonous trudge up snow and 
ice everywhere else. The hands here could take a 
considerable weight off the thigh muscles, naturally, of 
course, the most tired. On the summit the symptoms 
quickly subsided, and we found no difficulty in walking 
about and taking photographs. No symptoms of 
mountain lassitude were felt on the descent. 

REFERENCES 

Professor Angelo Mosso : La Fatica, 1891. 

Professor Angelo Mosso : The Life of Man on the High Alps, 1898. 

Dr. C. G. Monro : " Mountain Sickness," Alpine Journal, vol. vii, 
1893. 

Sir W. M. Conway : Climbing and Exploring in the Karakorams, 
1892. 

Dr. Malcolm Hepburn : " The Influence of Altitude in Mountain- 
eering," Alpine Journal, 1901. 

Dr. Malcolm Hepburn : " Some Reasons why the Science of Altitude 
Illness is still in its Infancy," Alpine Journal, 1902. 

Dr. Jacot Guillarmod : Six Mois dans V Himalayas, 1902. 

Dr. T. G. Longstaff : Mountain Sickness, 1906. 

Mr. C. W. Rubenson : " The Ascent of Kabru," Alpine Journal, 
1907. 

Sig. P. De Philippi : Karakoram and the Western Himalayas, 1909. 

Mr. A. L. Mumm : Five Months in the Himalayas, 1909. 

Dr. A. M. Kellas : " Sikkim and Garhwal," Alpine Journal, vol. 
xxvii, and Royal Geographical Journal, 1911. 

Dr. C. A. Swan : " Some Physical and Psychical Effects of Alti- 
tude," The Aeronautical Journal, January, 1920. 

N. Zuntz : Hohenklima, 1906. 

Sig. Adolfo Hess : Psicologica delV Alpinista, 1914. 



Exvoi 

Why do we mountaineers love the Alps ? Is it 
their beauty and majesty of form which appeal to us ? 
Is it because of the pure physical enjoyment of the 
struggle with the difficulties, maybe with the dangers 
of the ascent ? or the mental exhilaration of setting 
one's wits to discover the safe way to overcome the 
icy or rocky barriers that guard access to the heights ? 



INDEX 



Abruzzi, Due cl*. 255, 256 
Accidents, 113, 1S3, 192, 205, 

206 
Aeroplane in mountaineering. 

24:5 

Age for Alpine climbing, 135 
Aid, artificial, 135, 142~ 
Air-pump. 252 
Alcohol, 227, 234, 257 

methylated, 228 
Alarm watch, 103 
Allbutt, Sir t. C, quoted. 229, 

233 
Aimer, Ulrich, 145 
Alpargatas, 15 
Alpenstock, 21 
Alpine Club, 8 
Alpine clubs, 8 
Alpine Club, Ladies', 8 
Alpine distress signal, 142 
An Alpine modification, 140 
Anderea:g,Melchior. quoted, 155, 

237 
Aneroids, 39 

Angevihe, Mile d', quoted, 120 
Angles of rocks, 193 

of snow, 194 
Anklets, 31 
Ararat, 4 
Aretes, rock. 64 
Aretes, snow, 84 
Arthur's Seat, 53, 237 
Arves. South Aiguille d', 26. 

142 
Ascending, 181 
Avalanches, 70, 221 

Back and feet, 59 
Backing up, 63, 64, 191 



Ball, Professor John, quoted, 

145, 177 
Balloons, 252 
Balmat, Michel, 7 
Bass Bock, 53 
Basalt, 53 

Belay, wrong use of term, 185 
Bergsckrund, 75, 81, 84, 107, 115 
Blanc, Mont, 7, 10, 68, 119, 189, 

196, 201, 202, 206, 209, 223, 

251, 254 
Blisters, 231 

Boiling time, increase of, 224 
Boiler-plate rocks, 54 
Books, list of, 262 
Boots, 12 
Bouldering, 125 
Boulders, traversing, 178 
Bowline, 167 
Bowline on a bight, 167 
Bowline, triple, 168 
Bride Peak, 255 
British " glaciers," 69 
British mount ameering, 47—85 
Brown, Belmore, quoted, 257 
Buckton Cliff, Yorkshire, 51 
Burgener, Alexander, 66, 145, 237 
Balance mountaineering, 175 

Cairngorms, 220 
Cairns, 214 
Caisson disease, 253 
Calibrating disc, 239 
Camps, 246 
Candles. 38 
Caps, 33 
Caucasus, 4, 197 
Centres, British, 52 
Alpine, 89 



269 



270 



INDEX 



Chalets, 98 

Chalk, 52 

Chamois, 12, 50, 178 

" Chanson du Piolet," 206 

Charmoz, Aiguille de la Republi- 

que, 189 
Chough, Alpine, 242 
Chomokankar, 3 
Climbing, ladies', 119 

general, 181 
Clinometer, 40 
Clothes, 28 
Clouds, 204 
Clove-hitch, 168 
Coat, 28 

Coekburn, Dr. R. P., quoted, 230 
Collie, Dr. Norman, quoted, 71 
Combined Tactics, 60, 191 
Compass, 41 

Condition of the climber, 139 
Condition of the rocks, 207 
Condition of the snow, 207 
Conway, Sir W. M., 257, 260 
Cooking outfit, 38 
Coolidge, Dr. W. A. B., quoted, 

5 
Coolins, 54 
Cornices, British, 70 

Alpine, 110 
Cornwall climbing, 52 
Couloir climbing, 80 

angles of, 195 

Alpine descending, 211 
Cramp, 83 
Crampons, 19, 159 

use of, 19, 159 
Crevasses, 104, 106, 115 
Crossing torrents, 178 
Cunningham, C. D., quoted, 236 
Cutting steps, 154 

Dangers of mountaineering, 174 
Dauaet, Alphonse, quoted, 151 
Dauphine, 6, 8, 10 
Das, Baboo Sarat Chandra, 

quoted, 76 
Denali, 3 

Dent, Blanche, 212, 236 
Dent, C. T., quoted, 237 
Descending, 182, 183 
" Difficult," 50 
Dolomites, 15, 52, 89, 136, 140, 

183 



Dress for ladies, 127 
Drink, 225 
Drinking-cup, 45 
Dm Grand, 189 
Drus traverse, 171 
Dubbin, 14 

Eagle, Golden, 50 
White-tailed, 50 

Early start, 100 

" Easy," 50 

Echoes, 204 

Ecrins, angle of last slope, 194, 
197 

Edinburgh, Arthur's Seat, 53, 
237 

Eggs, 224 

Eight, double figure of, knot, 16, 
169, 209 

Elbruz, 74, 77, 209, 222, 259 

English School of Rock Climb- 
ing, 55, 151 

Englishman's Stone, 7 

Equipment, 12 

Erne " Heron " and " Iron " 
Crags, 50 

Espadrilles, 15 

Evaporation of snow, 209 

Evening meal, 103 

Everest, 3, 235, 252 

Exploration, 235 

Face protection, 34 

Falcon, Peregrine, 51 

Falling down-hill not easy, 180 

Falling stones, 199 

Farrar, Captain J. P., quoted, 10 

" Fat boy " quoted, 174 

Feet much the most important, 

12 
Fell- walking, 151 
Fisherman's knot, 169 
Fitness, 139 
Fixed ropes, 142 
Fohn wind, 202 
Food, 222 

Foot-holds, 13, 50, 121 
Forbes, Professor J. D., quoted, 

226 
Freshfield, D. W„ quoted, 5 
Frost-bite, 232 
Fuji San, 4 



INDEX 



271 



Gabbro, 54 
Geant Ice-fall, 105 

Col first crossed by ladies, 120 
Gendarme, descending on the 

Grepon. 113 
Geology, 49 

necessary for explorer, 236 
Gesner. Conrad, 7 
Giddiness, 64, 112 
Glacier formation, 67, 210 
Glissading, 72 
Gloves, 31 
Gogsrles. 33 

Graham, W. W., 237, 255 
Granite, 52, 53 
Grass, steep, 198 
" Greased 208 
Grepon, 56, 113, 142, 187 
Guide-books, 90 
Guideless climbing, 9 
Guides, 91 
Guillarmod. Dr. Jacot. quoted, 

78, 255, 256. 257 

Hands, use of. 121 

Hat. 32 

Health, 229 

Heirn, Professor, quoted, 210 

HeimsJrrinqla, quoted, 6 

Helmet, 33 

Hepburn, Dr. M., quoted, 260 

Highest ascents. 255 

Himalayas, 241, 246, 247 

Hitches", 185 

Hoisting ice-axes. 109 

Holds. 185 

Hotels, 91 

Howdah, 179 

Hudson and Kennedy, 10 

Ice, 71, 81, 100, 207 

axe, 21 

British hard, 81 

falls, Alpine, 19 

falls, British, 70 

film on rocks, 207 

screws. 19 
Indoor training, 230 
Intuition, 216 

Jackson, Rev. John, quoted, 179 
Jams, 224 



Jersey, Shetland best, 34 
Jungfrau, 254 



Kabru, 145, 237, 255 
Kangchenjunga, 3 
Karagom, hghtning on, 207 
Karakorams, 255 
Karr. Alphonse. quoted, 230 
Kellas, Dr. A. ML, quoted, 256 
Kern Knotts Crack, 56 
Kinematograph, 43 
Kinking, 165 
Kletterschuhe, 15 
Knots, 167 



Ladies. 117 

Alpine Club, 8 

Scottish Climbing Club, 8 
Lake district, 55 
Lanoline, 34 
Lantern, 37 

Lassitude, mountain, 251 
Lava, andesite, 54 
Leader, qualities of, 137 
Lightning, risks from, 205 

storm seen from Karagom^ 207 
Lime, Alpine, 207 
Longstaff, Dr. T. G., quoted, 256 
Loss of Guide, The, 70 



Macintosh, 34 
•" Magnapole," 41 
Manhitch. 41 
Maps. 41 
Mask, 33 
Matches, 46 

Mathews, C. E., quoted, 5 
Matterhorn, 193 
Mav. Isle of. 53 
Medical. 8. 229 
Meije, La. 10, 142 
Mettrier, M., quoted, 194, 196 
Michelet, M., quoted, 147 
Middleman knots. 167 
Mist, 220 

Monro, Dr. C. G., quoted, 260 
Mont Aiguille, 6 
Mont Blanc, 68 

Mosso. Professor, quoted. 242, 
251 



272 



INDEX 



Mountain sickness, 251 

craft, 91 
Moss Gill, 188 
Mquinvari, 4 
Muffler. See Scarf, 15 
Mulets, Grands, 189 
Mumm, A. L., quoted, 253, 2G0 
Mummery, A. F., quoted, 145, 
147, 237 

spikes, 19 

Nails, 16 

Nailless boots, danger of, 198 

Napes Needle, 187 

Nevis, 54, 68, 69, 70, 71 

Noose, slip, 166 

Nose, Ennerclale Pillar, 63 

Number in party, 143 

Observatory, Ben Nevis, 70 

Oilskin, 34 

Oldenhorn, 120 

Order of roping, 57, 148 

Orientation, 213 

Ortler, 7 

Over-night arranging, 103 

Oxygen, 252, 253, 256 

Paillon, Mile Mary, quoted, 129 
Paillon, M. Maurice, quoted, 174 
Paint, red, for guiding con- 
demned, 214 
Philippi, De, quoted, 256 
Photography, mountain, 42 
Piece-work, 96 

Pillar Rock, New West Climb, 188 
Pillar Rock, North Club, 63 
Pitons, 113 
Porters, 97 

Porterage in exploration, 244 
Prismatic compass, 41 
Puttees, 30 

Quartzite, 53 



Racing condemned, 134 
Rain, 208 

Reading map and compass, 216 
Record times condemned, 90 



Red sunset, 204 

Rey, Emil, quoted, 236; death 

of, 183 
Roche Melon, 5 
Rocks, angles of, 193 

condition important, 55 

climbing, feet most important 
in, 12 

climbing on loose, 186 

climbing on rotten, 185 

crampons on, 163 

" difficult " and " easy," 50 

geological formations, 49 

handling ropes on, 170 

ice-axe on, 157 

ice on, 207 

limestone, not suited for 
mails, 52 

more varied than ice, 49 
Ropes, 24 

care of, 165 

examining, 172 

fixed, 142 

lengtb of, 57 

" moral " support of, 173 

projecting, 189 

rings for descent, 113 

ropes not climbed up, 164 

rotten, 172 

spare, 59, 62, 104, ±12, 147 

splicing, 172 

stirrup, 62 

to carry, 165 

uncoiling, 166 

use for descent, 171 
Roping peaks, 142 

order of, 148 
Rosa, Monte, 226 
Rouge, 35 
Rubber shoes, 16 
Rucksack, 35 
Rugby football, 180 
Rules, mountaineering, 133 
Rush and rest system con- 
demned, 179 
Rympfishhorn, 226 



" Sabots " on crampon?, 163 
St. Kilda Island, 51 
Sandstone, 52 
Torridon, 53 



INDEX 



273 



Saussure, De, 7 
Scarf, 33 
Scarpetti, 15 
Scheuzer, 7 
Schist, mica, 53 
Schreckhorn, 226 
Schrund. See Bergsclirund 
Scotland, climbing in, 53 
Scottish Moimtaineering Club, 8 
Scottish Mountaineering Club 

Journal, 68, 71 
Scree, good for descent, 181 
Sculling good training, 230 
Sechehaye's pomade, 35 
Second on the rope, 137 
Sheet-bend, 169 
Shetland garments. 34 

climbing in, 51, 53 
Siren whistle, 45 
Simler, 7 

Skating best training for climb- 
ing, 176, 177 
Ski-ing in Scotland, 77 

little use for mountaineering, 
77 
Slabs, 54, 64 

Slingsby, Cecil, quoted, 205 
Smalserhorn, 6 
Snow, angles of, 194 

arete, 84, 110 

k 'bog," r 80 

bridge, 107 

condition of, 207 

eating, harmless, 226 

" good snow,"' 210 

hitching on, 82 

ice or neve, 68 

in Britain, 67 

on rocks, 208 

steps, in, 81, 83, 105, 106, 107 
" Solitary climber," 143 
Soups, 223 
Staablaiiine, 211 
Steering by compass and map, 
216 

in descending rocks, 182, 214 
Steps, cutting, 154 

kicking, 81 

on rocks, 157 

slashing, 81, 157 

zigzag or straight up, 107 
Socks and stockings, 30 
Stevenson, R. L., quoted, 9 

18 



Stimulants in general not re- 
quired, 227 

Stones, how to treat loose, 185, 
200 
falling, 199 

Stoves, '38 

Straving, 141 

Stutneld, H. M., quoted, 150 

Sugar, 225, 257 

Summit, leaving in a mist, 219 

Sure-foot edness, 177 

Swimming, 119 

Tacoma, 3 

Tartarin sur les Alpes, quoted, 

228 
Tea, 228 

Technical expressions. See Glos- 
sary, 264 
Technics, 174 
Temperature on high peaks, 221, 

241 
Thermos flasks, 228 
Third on rope, duties, 138 
Times, 90 
Time-work, 96 
Tinned meat, 183 
Traversing on rocks, 183 

general, 183 

hand, 184 
Tryggvasson's King Olaf Saga, 

quoted, 6 
Tuckett, F. F., quoted, on 

lightning, 205 
Tufa, 53 
" Tut," 22 
Turf -holds in, heather and grass, 

187 
Tyndall, John, quoted, 145, 210 

Ushba, 236 

Variation of the compass, 217 
Verglas, 207 

Wales, 55 

Walking on steep grass, 198 

over screes, 178 

at 90°. See Stirrup-rope 
Wall-creeper, Alpine, 62 
Wetterhorn, lightning on, 206 



274 



INDEX 



Wetter mantel, 34 
Whipping-ropes, 165 
Whymper, E., quoted, 189 
Wind and weather, 201, 202 
Windham and Pococke, 7 
Wilson, Dr. Claude, quoted, 50, 53 
Winter mountaineering in the 
Alps, 220 

' ; Yanking " condemned, 123 



Yorkshire cliff " klimmers," 51 
Yorkshire climbing, 52 

Zigzagging on slopes of grass, 170 

in cutting steps, 107 
Zmutt Arete, 71 
Zsigmondy, Dr. Emil, quoted, 

214; accident to, 113 
Zurbriggen, Matthias, quoted, I':!:; 



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